Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the fact that the gang of nine men convicted of abusing girls as young as 13 were Asian and their victims white must not be ignored.
He said it would be a “national scandal” if the authorities had failed to intervene to protect the children because of fears that it would lead to the "demonisation" of the Muslim community.
And he voiced fears that the “closed community” the men came from may have turned a blind eye to their activities, either out of fear or because the girls concerned were from a different background.
A gang of nine Muslim men from Pakistan and Afghanistan was last week found guilty of plying girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs so they could "pass them around" and use them for sex.
Judge Gerald Clifton, who heard the case, said in his sentencing remarks that they had treated their victims as “worthless and beyond all respect” at least in part because “they were not of your community or religion”.
But amid attempts by the British National Party to capitalise on the case a string of politicians sought to distance themselves from the idea that race was a factor.
Keith Vaz the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “There is no excuse for this kind of criminality, whoever is involved in it, but I don't think it is a particular group of people.”
And following the trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Greater Manchester Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood, said: “It just happens that in this particular area and time, the demographics were that these were Asian men.
"However, in large parts of the country we are seeing on-street grooming, child sexual exploitation happening in each of our towns and it isn't about a race issue.”
But, speaking on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Phillips said: “Anybody who says that the fact that most of the men are Asian and most of the children are white is not relevant – that's just fatuous.
“These are closed communities essentially and I worry that in these communities there are people who knew what was going on and didn't say anything, either because they're frightened or because they're so separated from the rest of the communities they think 'Oh, that's just how white people let their children carry on, we don't need to do anything’.”
He said it was important also that the role played by the authorities in the area was properly investigated.
"If anybody in any of the agencies that are supposed to be caring for these children – schools, social services and so on – took the view that being aggressively interventionalist to save these children would lead to the demonisation of some group because of the ethnicity ... then it is a national scandal and something that would need to be dealt with urgently," he said.
Keith Vaz the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “There is no excuse for this kind of criminality, whoever is involved in it, but I don't think it is a particular group of people.”
And following the trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Greater Manchester Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood, said: “It just happens that in this particular area and time, the demographics were that these were Asian men.
"However, in large parts of the country we are seeing on-street grooming, child sexual exploitation happening in each of our towns and it isn't about a race issue.”
But, speaking on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Phillips said: “Anybody who says that the fact that most of the men are Asian and most of the children are white is not relevant – that's just fatuous.
“These are closed communities essentially and I worry that in these communities there are people who knew what was going on and didn't say anything, either because they're frightened or because they're so separated from the rest of the communities they think 'Oh, that's just how white people let their children carry on, we don't need to do anything’.”
He said it was important also that the role played by the authorities in the area was properly investigated.
"If anybody in any of the agencies that are supposed to be caring for these children – schools, social services and so on – took the view that being aggressively interventionalist to save these children would lead to the demonisation of some group because of the ethnicity ... then it is a national scandal and something that would need to be dealt with urgently," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9263050/Claiming-Rochdale-grooming-not-about-race-is-fatuous-Trevor-Phillips.html
