Solicitor General: ‘Racist’ child sex abusers should get more prison time
2 min read
Grooming gangs that target white girls should be handed longer prison sentences if the abuse is deemed racist, the Solicitor General has said.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Robert Buckland called for racism to be put “front and centre” in sexual abuse cases.
There should be a "sentencing uplift," he said, in cases where there was evidence of "racial hostility of motivation".
The remarks follow the convictions of 17 men and one woman over child sex abuse in Newcastle.
The grooming gang targeted victims as young as 14, plying them with alcohol and drugs before subjecting them to sexual abuse.
The offenders were British-born from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Iraqi, Indian Iranian and Turkish communities.
During one of the trials it was revealed that gang members referred to victims as “white trash" who were "only good for one thing".
The Home Secretary responded saying that political correctness should not get in the way of investigating allegations or bringing perpetrators to justice.
Speaking yesterday, Amber Rudd said: “It is an affront to everyone in our society and I want to be absolutely clear that political and cultural sensitivities must never be allowed to get in the way of preventing and uncovering it.”
This came after Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Minister accused authorities of failing to acknowledge that this type of child sex abuse was being carried out predominantly by Asian men.
Sarah Champion told the Today programme: “There are many, many types of child abuse and there are many types of child exploitation, but the particular gang-related one is predominantly – the prosecutions and convictions we get are predominantly Pakistani men and therefore we have to address this.”
“If this was people from a particular town across the country, if it was people from a motorbike gang we were doing this, we would recognise this as an indicator and we would deal with it, but we’re just not dealing with this.
“I genuinely think it’s because people are more afraid to be called a racist than they are afraid to be wrong about calling out child abuse.”
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