Police must do more to support and listen to survivors of child sexual abuse, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), following a major investigation into South Yorkshire police’s response to allegations made in Rotherham.
The report published on Tuesday made 12 recommendations to national and local police forces, warning that some systemic problems identified in the 91 separate investigations completed so far still existed.
The watchdog’s investigation into allegations of misconduct by police in relation to child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, known as Operation Linden, involved looking into 265 separate allegations, from 1997 to 2013. There were 51 complainants, 44 of whom were survivors of abuse.
The investigation was launched following a report in 2014 by Prof Alexis Jay, a former chief inspector of social work, which concluded that failures by politicians and the police contributed to the sexual exploitation of 1,400 children by groups of men in the town over 16 years. Jay’s report followed an investigation by the Times in 2012 which found that gang rape and trafficking were widespread in Rotherham
Jay concluded that police did not prioritise child sexual abuse, regarded many victims with contempt and failed to act on their reports.
The IOPC warned that some crimes committed against vulnerable children reported directly to South Yorkshire police’s public protection department were still not being recorded, urging the force to take steps to ensure it complied with Home Office rules around crime recording.
The watchdog investigated 47 officers. Eight were found to have a case to answer for misconduct and six had a case to answer for gross misconduct. Five have faced sanctions, the harshest being a final written warning. However, in many cases, the officer had retired and could not face disciplinary proceedings.
The IOPC also recommended that the voices of survivors should be included in College of Policing training for all officers dealing with child sexual abuse.
The investigation also spoke to many survivors who have criminal records as a result of their actions when they were being exploited. The IOPC has asked the Law Commission to review laws on offences committed by young people who are being groomed and exploited, and highlighted parallels between child sexual exploitation and children who are criminally exploited, for example in “county lines” cases.
Steve Noonan, the IOPC director of major investigations, praised the bravery of the survivors who had enabled the body to “shine a light on the failings of the past”. However, he said that survivors of abuse would be “deeply concerned, as are we, some of these problems still exist today”, urging the police to act on the recommendations.
“Police understanding of this type of offending has evolved significantly in recent years and we must acknowledge the efforts made to improve the way these cases are dealt with. However, there is still work to do and we have issued these recommendations to make sure lessons are learned and mistakes of the past are not repeated,” he added.
The Rotherham MP, Labour’s Sarah Champion, welcomed the recommendations, but said improvement in tackling child sexual exploitation cannot be “a finite process, but must be sustained and long-lasting”.
“It is deeply concerning that the report suggests that improvements made following inspections of South Yorkshire police in 2014 may have stalled, or even deteriorated in some areas,” she said.
The last outstanding police misconduct hearing is due to be heard next spring, after which the IOPC’s final over-arching report will be published. Operation Linden is the watchdog’s largest ever investigation, after Hillsborough.
