Rotherham child abuse scandal: Police watchdog to investigate 10 officers over handling of exploitation complaints

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Rotherham child abuse scandal: Police watchdog to investigate 10 officers over handling of exploitation complaints

Ten officers in South Yorkshire are to be investigated by the Police watchdog, over their handling of the Rotherham sex abuse scandal.

The Independent reports: The officers were among 13 identified as part of Professor Alexis Jay’s report in late August, which revealed that more than 1,400 children had been subjected to child sexual exploitation in the town from 1997 to 2013.

South Yorkshire Police referred the officers to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after the Jay report criticised the way agencies in the south Yorkshire town dealt with complaints from teenage girls who said they had been raped and trafficked.

The other three officers from the group of 13 were identified by a separate internal police review, rather than the Jay report. Two of them will not face investigation, the IPCC has determined, while the case of the third remains under review.

In his report, Professor Jay said that both senior police officers and council officials must have known about what was going on in Rotherham, but failed to act.

Announcing the IPCC probe into the 10 officers, the watchdog’s commissioner Kathryn Stone said: “The amount of public concern across the country about this episode and the impact on confidence in the police means it is important that a fully independent investigation is conducted to establish how South Yorkshire Police dealt with child sexual exploitation.

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