The Tory leadership contender and former chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to create a new criminal offence for grooming pedophile rings across northern English towns and cities.
Grooming Gangs
In April, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson admitted the force was “borderline incompetent” in its handling of the Rochdale grooming gangs and acknowledged that his predecessors had “failed” children in the past.As part of his part plan to cut crime Sunak promised harsher sentences for criminals who refuse to attend court for their sentencing hearings and a crackdown on grooming gangs.
“As prime minister, I will do everything possible to make sure victims have the chance to look their perpetrator in the eye and witness justice being served. We must not allow criminals to continue to take the coward’s way out and not face up to their crimes,” said Sunak.
In the UK, “Asian” often refers to people from the Indian subcontinent, typically Pakistan, or sometimes even the Middle East.
In June, Greater Manchester Police and Oldham Council said they are “deeply sorry” after a report said both failed to protect girls from grooming gangs between 2011 and 2014 and “missed opportunities” to protect a girl who tried to raise the alarm.
Government ministers and various official reports have since acknowledged that one of the reasons the police and local authorities failed to act was due to the influence of political correctness and fear of being labelled as racist.
Maggie Oliver is a former Detective Constable in the Greater Manchester Police who turned whistleblower by exposing the Rochdale child sex grooming scandal in 2012.
“My thoughts are that I’ve heard it all before,” Oliver told The Epoch Times by email.
“Myself, victims and the public are so sick of empty promises, more apologies and a pretence they are taking these horrific and life-destroying crimes seriously when they most certainly are not,” she said.
In 2019, Oliver founded The Maggie Oliver Foundation to highlight the problem of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) on a national scale, particularly the failures of the authorities to address this effectively. She also was a Programme Consultant on the multi-dramatisation of the case entitled Three Girls (BBC One) as well as a key contributor to The Betrayed Girls documentary (BBC One).
“We need a radical overhaul of the whole so-called criminal justice system and that needs people working with victims and survivors who truly understand,” she said.
Oliver added that she has already heard a whole parade of politicians making empty promises for the past ten years including Priti Patel, Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid, Keir Starmer, and Tony Blair. “And yet this problem is growing not getting less.”
‘Political Ideology Disguised as Law’
The Bad Law Project was set up by the Reclaim Party’s Laurence Fox as well as Fair Cop’s lawyer Sarah Phillimore and former policeman Harry Miller to fight what they believe is “political ideology disguised as law.”New Criminal Offence
Under Sunak’s new plans, a new criminal offence would be created for belonging to or facilitating a grooming gang. A database of such groups would also be created to help investigators.Sunak’s place in the final two of the Tory leadership race looked increasingly secure on Monday, with Penny Mordaunt still clinging on to second place. If he wins, he will be named the next prime minister on Sept. 5. The remaining Conservative leadership candidates include Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, and Liz Truss.
The Epoch Times contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.