London [United Kingdom], Aug.11 : Child abuse is massive in the United Kingdom, and according to charities dealing specifically with children, one in four girls and one in six boys experiences some form of sexual abuse before they turn 18.
In an article for The Sun, Sarah Champion, the Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, spoke of her horror about these statistics, and more specifically highlighted her alarm over the fact that those convicted for gang-related child sexual exploitation, are largely British Pakistani males.
Stating that more than 90 per cent of abused children know their abuser, and adding that it is usually someone from within the extended family, Champion called on the government of Prime Minister Theresa May to act and counter this malaise with all the force at its command.
"The government must act now to understand why this is. We have a large group of men behind bars, let's do some research and find out why these monsters think it is acceptable to abuse children in this way.
Unless we know why they do, we can't prevent it. Our children deserve better," Champion says in her article for The Sun. "British Pakistani men are raping and exploiting white girls. and it's time we faced up to it," Champion said, adding that she was prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is? Referring to the recent Newcastle sex gang incident, where the accused have been found guilty on a range of child sexual exploitation charges, the Labour MP said there was nothing "racist" about her saying what she was saying or what she was highlighting.
"For too long, we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up. No more. These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage. We have to have grown-up conversations, however unpalatable, or in six months' time, we will be having this same scenario all over again," she warned.
"The irony of all of this is that, by not dealing with the ethnicity of the abusers as a fact, political correctness has actually made the situation about race.
The perpetrators are criminals and we need to deal with them as such, not shy away from doing the right thing by fearing being called a racist," Champion said in her article.
She said that she has been aware of CSE or child sexual exploitation since 2012, when she was first elected, and was stunned when she heard of the statistics of mainly white pubescent girls being sexually groomed and exploited by gangs of mainly British Pakistani men.
She said that there and then she felt that she had to do something about the issue and not turn a blind eye to these crimes.
"Working with the children's charity Barnardo's, I launched a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
We found that the judges were not properly supporting the victims in court. Police weren't always aware of the crime and the law needed changing so that police could act swiftly to prosecute on the first whiff of sexual grooming.
Most importantly, victims and survivors were not being believed or given the support they needed to rebuild their lives," she said.
She says that following her inquiry, judges and the police are now better trained and more aware of the crime.
Though the law on grooming has changed, victims still do not get better support, she says. In her article, she has presented a simple five-point plan to prevent child sexual exploitation: . Set up a task force of experts . Give primary school children education on healthy/unhealthy relationships . Launch a national CSE awareness campaign . Supply mandatory training for professionals in the field . Provide support for victims and survivors..
Source: ANI
