![\"An](\"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/360wire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/11\/rotherham-town.jpg\")
Rings were discovered to be operating across the country, including in Bradford and Rochdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, 19 men were arrested by West Yorkshire Police as part of investigations into historic child grooming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inquiry will be tasked with looking into the role played by the ethnic background of offenders, after an audit by Baroness Casey earlier this year found that the ethnicity of gangs had been “shied away from”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will also examine the failings by local authorities to prevent the abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Ms Prem said it was irrelevant whether those responsible were from any particular ethnic background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese grooming gangs had to be investigated, and it wasn’t helping anybody to shy away from that \u2013 certainly not the victims and potential future victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI’ve been explicitly clear that culture and religion and background should be no barrier to finding out who these people are and prosecuting them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A seven-year national inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay released in 2022 found there had been institutional failings across the country regarding the grooming gangs scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Professor Jay\u2019s report into the Rotherham gang in 2014, several senior officials resigned from their posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These included the council\u2019s chief executive and South Yorkshire\u2019s Police and Crime Commissioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Prem added: \u201cI think this has been mishandled by almost every statutory body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLooking to appoint people from professions which have completely let down these women, certainly when they were young girls, makes it very, very difficult for that to be tenable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA number of them have walked away from the inquiry because they believe it will come from a bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd I would support if there was a judge available that was agreed by everybody on the panel and people would come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think that would only be a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government initially ruled out an investigation in the wake of Baroness Casey\u2019s review, but Sir Keir Starmer later announced a national inquiry after pressure from opposition groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A charity boss has urged for victims to be put first as the fallout around the government\u2019s grooming gangs inquiry continues. Last month, four survivors \u2013 one of whom was from Rotherham \u2013 resigned from the consultation panel. The women had raised concerns with the chair selection process and that it is being used as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,22,8,225],"tags":[447,446,131,60,59],"class_list":["post-3278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infocus","category-infocustop","category-politics","category-south-yorkshire","tag-aneeta-prem","tag-grooming-gangs","tag-in-focus","tag-politics","tag-south-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n