A lengthy £ 6m investigation into multiple police failures during the Rotherham readiness scandal “disappoints victims and survivors” by failing to identify any individual responsibility, a police and crime commissioner has said.
The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) on Wednesday released what it described as its global report on Operation Linden, the name given to a series of investigations it conducted into how South Police Yorkshire responded to allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation between 1997 and 2013.
An estimated 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham over the 16-year period.
The report concludes that the force did not protect vulnerable children. The IOPC Fund conducted 91 investigations into police offenses covering 265 different complaints filed by 51 whistleblowers. A total of 47 officers were investigated, and the IOPC Fund concluded that eight had a case to answer for misconduct and six for serious misconduct.
No officers lost their jobs as a result of the process and the most severe sanction was a written notice.
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings said “a lot of time and money has been spent on few new findings or responsibility”. He added: “I am disappointed that after eight years of costly investigations, this report does not make any significant recommendations beyond what South Yorkshire police have already accepted and implemented from previous investigations a few years ago.
“It repeats what previous reports and reviews have shown: that there was an unacceptable practice between 1997 and 2013, but it does not identify any individual responsibility. As a result, it disappoints victims and survivors.”
Operation Linden was, according to the IOPC, “one of our largest and most complex investigations” to date, only behind its investigation into the Hillsborough fault, also by South Yorkshire police.
The new report describes in gloomy detail and “uncomfortable to read” the repeated police failures in the handling of complaints in Rotherham. He found that over and over again police officers were not fully aware of the crimes of child sexual exploitation and abuse nor were they able to deal with them. Agents repeatedly lacked empathy, and some saw the children as “consenting” to their exploitation.
A father worried about the disappearance of a daughter said that an officer told them that “it was a” fashion accessory “for Rotherham girls to have a” big Asian boyfriend “and that he would get out of it”.
An officer investigating the rape of his 15-year-old daughter in Rotherham Park told another father that the incident would teach the boy a “lesson”.
Steve Noonan, the director of major research at the IOPC, agreed that survivors would be disappointed with the results against individual agents. But he said his team quickly realized they were investigating systemic failures.
The consultation was estimated to cost £ 6 million, he said, adding: “We can’t put a price on making wholesale changes to the system. Survivors told us they didn’t want this to happen again. to anyone and that the changes that have been made and are yet to be made … we believe that they will offer a real change.
“It’s about making sure we protect those who are most vulnerable. We care for and support them, not criminalize them.”
The IOPC made a number of recommendations last year and the report said it was encouraged by the South Yorkshire police response, believing it was demonstrating “its commitment to take action so that the problems in this report do not never be repeated “.
David Greenwood, a lawyer representing 80 Rotherham survivors, said the report showed “how the police complaints system has provided zero accountability and needs reform”.
Tim Forber, Deputy Chief of Police for the South Yorkshire Police, said the force accepted the IOPC findings, which closely reflected those highlighted by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014. The Jay report revealed political and police failures. which surprised Britain.
Forber said that for the police, “it brought a stark reality to our failures in managing child sexual exploitation. We disappointed the victims. We did not recognize their vulnerability and we could not see them as victims. , that’s why I’m so sorry, they deserved better than us.
“The brave stories of these girls brought about a seismic shift in police crime of this nature for the South Yorkshire Police and the wider police service.”
Forber said much had changed in strength. “While I am confident that today we are a very different force, I will not lose sight of the fact that we were wrong and defrauded the victims.”