More than 1,000 children in the English city of Telford have been sexually abused since 1989 amid the failure of police and local authorities to bring perpetrators to justice, according to the findings of an independent inquiry published yesterday (Tuesday).
The case began to unravel following an investigation by the Sunday Mirror newspaper into the sexual exploitation of children from the 1980s. The criminal investigation that followed confirmed the cases and found that the abuse was allowed to continue because the children were blamed instead of the perpetrators.
Among other things, teachers were discouraged from reporting incidents of sexual abuse, while police feared that investigating some of the alleged perpetrators, who were of Asian descent, would spark racial tensions, according to the report.
«Countless children have been sexually assaulted and raped,» said Tom Crowther, head of the investigation. Citing testimonies from many victims, he said some men approached them with the aim of gradually gaining their trust and when they achieved their goal they exploited them to satisfy their sick appetites.
The local police apologised for their failure to prevent these crimes, while local authorities apologised to the victims and their families.
The case adds to a series of horrific cases of sexual abuse in Britain. In 2014, another independent investigation revealed that around 1,400 children in an English town had been sexually abused, while the famous TV presenter and radio producer Jimmy Saville was revealed after his death in 2011 to have sexually abused more than 500 children.
