UK ‘grooming gangs’ investigators were told not to investigate senior officers: report

January 19, 2025 by Human Events Media Group

A whistleblower has alleged that investigators probing the police failures during the Rotherham “grooming gangs” scandal were told not to investigate senior officers.

According to The Times, the inquiry by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) “barely scratched the surface,” focusing instead on lower-ranking officers. This revelation comes despite evidence of systemic failings that allowed the sexual exploitation of at least 1,400 young girls between 1997 and 2013 by groups of predominantly Pakistani men.

Operation Linden, the investigation carried out by the IOPC, found that South Yorkshire police neglected to record crimes when rapes and sexual assaults were reported. Officers also did not question older men found in compromising situations with young, intoxicated girls. However, no officer lost their job, and accountability remained limited to junior officers.

According to the Times, the inquiry lacked depth and there was “no desire” to uncover the reasons behind these systemic failures.

“We were actively told not to pursue senior officers,” the whistleblower claimed. “It was just largely incompetent. There was just no passion or desire within the IOPC to understand what went wrong in Rotherham and find out why those girls were let down.

“We were told to focus on junior officers who handled the complaints from individual victims. But this was happening across the country, where lower-ranked officers were ignoring CSE [child sexual exploitation],” the whistleblower continued. “I thought it was important to know why that was. Whether this culture was sanctioned at higher up levels. But I was told ‘you cannot pursue senior officers, suggesting they should have known what was going on’.”

Out of 91 investigations into police misconduct, involving 265 allegations and 47 officers, only eight officers had a case for misconduct and six for gross misconduct. The highest-ranking officer investigated was a detective inspector, and another who was sanctioned was just a junior officer with six months of experience.

“For all the failures in Rotherham, I don’t think the public would really buy that,” the whistleblower said. “Meanwhile we were told to focus on Rotherham alone, but it was very clear not only that there were force-wide systemic problems but problems in other parts of the country. I don’t think the failings have been truly properly investigated.”

An IOPC spokesperson defended the operation, calling it the organization’s second-largest investigation, with up to 50 staff members involved over seven years.

“Every one of the 91 investigations within Operation Linden was carried out thoroughly and all lines of enquiry explored by up to 50 IOPC staff. Throughout the seven-year investigation, the second largest in our history, our priority was the welfare of the survivors, who showed incredible bravery in coming forward,” the spokesperson said. “We identified systemic issues including failures in leadership, lack of professional curiosity, cultural issues and gaps in skills and training. Where individual failings were identified, they were addressed.”