At least 1,400 children sexually exploited in Rotherham, says report

At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited by Asian criminal gangs in Rotherham over a span of 16 years, a report has revealed.

Some of the victims were raped by multiple attackers and even doused with petrol and threatened with being set alight, the Metro reports.

Professor Alexis Jay, a former senior social worker who authored the report into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham since 1997, said the evidence handed over to police and social services was dismissed and suppressed.

Jay, who conducted an inquiry into the attacks that took place between 1997 and 2013 in South Yorkshire, said it was hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered.

She said the victims were raped by multiple perpetrators and trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England apart from being kidnapped and getting beaten up.

Following the inquiry, it was revealed that several staff members feared being labeled racists if they identified the ethnic origin of perpetrators.

Negligence on part of the authorities involved was also cited as a major reason for the encouragement of such crimes.