How social workers failed Yorkshire schoolgirl abused by gang of 12
- Details
- Category: UK Child Protection
- Created: Tuesday, 06 December 2016 22:59
- Written by David Behrens & Mark Lavery - Yorkshire Post
Twelve men have been sentenced to a total of 130 years for sexually exploiting a young schoolgirl in Keighley.
Professionals ‘believed children chose to consent to this type of crime’.
A CATALOGUE of mistakes and missed opportunities by police and social workers was blamed today for failing to protect a vulnerable schoolgirl from West Yorkshire who was systematically abused by a gang of Asian males whom, a court heard, saw her as “utterly worthless”.
The girl, identified only as “Autumn”, was aged 13 and 14 when she was repeatedly raped, sexually abused and passed around by the men. In one sustained attack she was raped by five of them in succession. Today, a “serious case review” published by Bradford Safeguarding Children Board criticised police for “not prioritising intervention in this type of crime”, and for a belief that “children involved in this kind of harm were actively consenting and choosing to become involved”. On one occasion, police treated information that Autumn had performed a sex act on an Asian man in a park as a case of prostitution, the review’s authors say.