Here is my take on recent revelations about the grooming gang scandal, with previous coverage by fellow Alor.org blogger, Richard Miller. Allegations that South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officers were complicit in the rape and trafficking of Rotherham's grooming gang victims mark a chilling new low in what was already Britain's most disgraceful child protection scandal. Between 1997 and 2013, at least 1,400 children, mostly white, working-class girls, were systematically abused by grooming gangs, primarily made up of men of Pakistani heritage. That horror was laid bare in Professor Alexis Jay's 2014 report. Now, survivors are coming forward to say that some of the very officers who should have protected them were part of the abuse. These are not just allegations of incompetence, neglect, or political cowardice. These are allegations of active, predatory involvement, rape, coercion, and cover-up, by men wearing the Queen's (at the time) badge.
One survivor, "Willow," says she was raped at age 12 by a uniformed officer in a marked car, threatened with being "handed back" to the grooming gang if she didn't comply. She names PC Hassan Ali, an officer already linked to the scandal before his mysterious death in 2015. Ali allegedly destroyed a statement she gave about a forced abortion. Another survivor, "Emma," says she was raped in a squat by an officer who targeted her specifically because she was a vulnerable kid in care. Witness statements compiled by Switalskis Solicitors allege further depravity: officers taking payment in sex or drugs, supplying Class A drugs to gangs, even beating victims inside police cells.
To date, three former officers have been arrested, but none have been charged. The investigation is still being run by South Yorkshire Police, about South Yorkshire Police, for South Yorkshire Police. The fox is guarding the henhouse.
Let's not pretend this was just a few bad apples. The rot runs through the barrel. As far back as 2014, Jay's report found police and council officers ignored abuse "for fear of being called racist." Victims were treated as disposable, troublesome promiscuous girls, not children in danger. Operation Linden, an IOPC review published in 2022, confirmed that officers routinely failed to record crimes and ignored pleas for help. And yet it still didn't dig into the senior brass. One whistleblower told The Times in 2025 that leadership was protected — again.
These new claims go further: not only was there passive neglect, but active exploitation, rape, and evidence destruction by police. This isn't just dereliction of duty, it's participation in organised abuse under colour of law.
Now to the uncomfortable part. Some of the implicated officers, like PC Hassan Ali, share the same ethnic background as the grooming gangs: British-Pakistani. Some social critics have commented, not unreasonably, that this undermines the official narrative around "diversity" in policing.
Let's be blunt: if an institution hires for optics over integrity, and fails to vet staff properly for fear of appearing racist, it is courting disaster. That's an argument against unaccountable appointments, against cowardice masquerading as tolerance, and against a culture that values political appearance over truth.
When victims said their abusers were Pakistani men, they were ignored, because the truth made senior officials uncomfortable. When some officers from similar backgrounds began acting like the criminals they were supposed to pursue, the same system covered for them. Diversity became a shield. That's the optics crisis. And it's real.
This scandal doesn't exist in a vacuum. Compare it to the Epstein case in the U.S., another saga of powerful men, systemic cover-ups, uncharged crimes, and abused girls turned into collateral damage. Or consider the arrest of European dissidents who name names in grooming networks. Or the disappearance of evidence. A pattern emerges: powerful institutions close ranks to protect their own, no matter how monstrous the crimes.
In Rotherham, public trust is at rock bottom, and rightly so. A 2024 Gallup poll showed only 43% of Britons now trust the police. The more people speak out, the more the establishment digs in. The IOPC's involvement in the current probe is cold comfort. Even Jay, who helped expose the original scandal, says she no longer trusts SYP to investigate itself.
Enough is enough. Here's what should happen, immediately:
Pull the plug on SYP's self-investigation. Give the case to an independent force or His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Charge the offenders. If victims can name rapist cops and produce statements, what's stopping the CPS?
Re-open the Ali case. He may be dead, but his associates aren't.
Launch a national inquiry. As Elon Musk said earlier this year, we need a full UK-wide inquiry into historic grooming cases and institutional collusion.
Publish the findings. Don't bury the truth under redactions and excuses like the Epstein files.
This isn't just about Rotherham. It's about a British state that has lost the ability, or the will, to defend its own children from predators inside its institutions. It's about a police force where uniforms gave predators immunity. It's about councils and officials who preferred accusations of racism over accusations of incompetence. It's about journalists and MPs who looked away because the truth didn't suit the narrative.
It's also about a generation of survivors who are still, even now, being denied justice. Girls like Willow and Emma aren't just victims, they are witnesses to a country's moral collapse.
"In horrifying new developments, five victims of the Rotherham grooming gangs say that they were also abused by police officers. The Mail has the grim details.
One says she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving South Yorkshire Police officer in a marked car, the BBC reports.
He would threaten to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply, she says.
The woman is one of five who allege that as children they were exploited by corrupt police as well as grooming gangs.
Among officers alleged to have preyed on girls is PC Hassan Ali. …
Three former South Yorkshire officers have been arrested on suspicion of historic sexual offences including attempted rape, indecent assault and misconduct in a public office while they were on duty.
None has been charged.
Written accounts by grooming gang survivors collected by specialist child abuse lawyers allege years of abuse by serving police officers in Rotherham from the mid-1990s to early 2000s.
Most were girls in their teens at the time but some were as young as 11, according to the shocking report.
One reports hearing a police officer having sex with girls in exchange for drugs and money.
Another says she witnessed one supplying class A drugs to a grooming gang.
Three describe being beaten up by officers as children, including in a police cell.
One victim given the pseudonym Willow told the broadcaster she was sexually abused by hundreds of men over five years after first being targeted aged 11 – two of them police officers. …
According to Willow, after she was pressured into an illegal abortion by the grooming gang, a youth worker contacted social services and the police.
But she says one of the officers who had been abusing her turned up to interview her, leaving her "destroyed", later ripping her statement up and throwing it in a bin.
According to the BBC she named PC Hassan Ali as having raped her.
He died in January 2015, a week after being hit by a car.
On the same day he had been put on restricted duties because of an investigation into alleged misconduct in the abuse scandal.
He was never arrested.
Another victim, 'Emma', who was in care in the late 1990s, said she would be raped by a police officer in a squat.
"He knew we wouldn't be missed, he knew we wouldn't be reported," she told the BBC.
"He knew we wouldn't be able to say anything." …
At least 1,400 girls in Rotherham were abused by gangs of men – mainly of Pakistani heritage – between 1997 and 2013, Prof Alexis Jay concluded in a landmark report in 2014.
South Yorkshire Police's major crime unit is currently conducting the inquiry into the involvement of police officers in the Rotherham grooming scandal under the 'direction and control' of police watchdog the IOPC. …
Prof Jay today said she is "shocked" that the force is investigating its own former officers.
She told the BBC there were "legitimate" reasons for victims to feel "a total lack of trust" in the force.
Calling for an outside force or the Inspectorate of Constabulary to be brought in to investigate, she told the BBC that there was a risk of institutions prioritising "protecting their reputation" over "the welfare of children".