ROTHERHAM, England — Rotherham is a working-class town that is remarkable in its drabness — a collection of charmless discount stores, betting shops and kebab counters, surrounded by residential streets lined with brick houses that have seen better days.
But shock was evident below the drab Wednesday as the people of this northern English town learned that for 16 years, girls as young as 11 in their community had been subjected to sexual exploitation on a vast scale.
The number of victims — 1,400 — was terrifying enough for a community of just 250,000.
But that wasn’t all: despite repeated warnings over the years, only a handful of men have ever been convicted, and an independent report found that local leaders for years have dismissed reports of child rape, exploitation and violence.
Part of the reason, they said, was that they feared they would be branded as racist for pursuing the perpetrators — the majority of whom were men of Pakistani origin.
“We need to acknowledge there was a large number of Pakistani men said to be involved. As a Pakistani Muslim, I don’t find anything within our religion to condone this,” said Muhbeen Hussain, 20, who founded the British Muslim Youth group. “We need to reopen every case since the 1990s and investigate them. If it were any other type of crime, the police would have acted.”
Hussain argues the problem has gone on for so long because of a lack of accountability, not race.
“Saying it’s about race is just an excuse for the failure of the local council,” he said. “Are they not going to arrest a drug dealer because the Muslims may be upset? It’s ludicrous.”
It’s not the first time revelations of abuse have surfaced in Britain, but Rotherham’s is unique for the sheer number of cases.
Many of the girls were lured at the school gates by older men who gained their favor by plying them with gifts and drugs. Some were trafficked to other towns, for sex with men there, the report said.
Most victims were described as “white British children,” but more recently a greater number of cases were coming from the growing Pakistani, Kashmiri and Roma communities.
