 "Explained: ‘Pakistani grooming gangs’ scandal for which Elon Musk is attacking Keir Starmer")
Elon Musk is going after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the ‘Pakistan grooming gangs’ scandal.
Musk, the richest man in the world and the owner of X, wrote on his social media platform “Starmer was complicit in the rape of Britain when he was head of Crown Prosecution for 6 years.”
“Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain,” Musk added.
“So many people at all levels of power in the UK need to be in prison for this,” Musk earlier wrote on X.
The scandal, which originally came to light a decade ago, has recently resurfaced in the public eye.
But what do we know about it? Why is Musk blaming Starmer?
Let’s take a closer look:
What do we know?
As per Business Standard, the scandal first came to light in 2012.
This after The Times newspaper reported on the existence of a secret police document which claimed that thousands of children had been sexually exploited in South Yorkshire by groups of gangs.
The document claimed that at least 1,400 children over a decade and a half had been systematically abused by these gangs – mostly men of Pakistani heritage.
The victims, some as young as 11, suffered rape and trafficking.
The local authorities, meanwhile, afraid of being seen as racist or insensitive to foreign cultures failed to act.
According to BBC, the Rotherham Borough Council, South Yorkshire Police and other agencies responded to the report by establishing a child sexual exploitation (CSE) team.
The council also commissioned an independent inquiry led by professor Alexis Jay.
Jay published her report in 2014.
The report claimed that at least 1,400 children were sexually abused by men mostly of Pakistani heritage.
Jay in her report found that girls as young as 11 were raped, trafficked, abducted, beaten, and intimidated by these gangs.
The Telegraph quoted the report as saying that children were “doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight” and “threatened with guns.”
They “witnessed brutally violent rapes and were threatened that they would be the next victim if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators, one after the other.”
The report claimed a senior police officer in Rotherham allegedly said the abuse had been “going on” for three decades.
“With it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to be coming out,” he added.
One witness said that with Pakistanis making up three per cent of the population, the council was “terrified of [the impact on] community cohesion”.
Witnesses said pressure was applied on people to “suppress, keep quiet or cover up.”
An ex-senior officer said, “X didn’t want [the] town to become the child abuse capital of the north. They didn’t want riots.”
The report added that there was “a sense that it was the Pakistani heritage Councillors who alone ‘dealt’ with that community” had a “disproportionate influence” on the council.
“My experience of council as it was and is – Asian men very powerful, and the white British are very mindful of racism and frightened of racism allegations so there is no robust challenge,” a witness said.
The authorities were essentially afraid of being labelled racist.
Worse, the inquiry found that when two fathers found their daughters being abused and attempted to retrieve them, they were arrested by the police.
The Jay report also led to other investigations.
As per BBC, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) then launched operation Linden in 2014.
This operation looked at how the South Yorkshire Police responded to child sexual abuse complaints in the aftermath of the Jay Report being published.
Operation Lindon carried out dozens of investigations between 2014 and 2018.
It ultimately spanned 265 separate allegations from 51 complainants – of whom 44 were survivors of abuse and exploitation.
The IOPC said eight out of 47 officers were found to have engaged in misconduct.
Six had engaged in gross misconduct.
While many of these officers had retired and thus could not be prosecuted, five were punished by authorities.
The authorities also then began Operation Stovewood.
This after Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police asked the National Crime Agency (NCA) to conduct an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
There are currently 40 separate investigations on with 200 officers.
Thus far 20 people have been convicted and over 150 arrested by authorities, as per BBC.
The Guardian quoted NCA as saying that Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement operation of its kind.
The newspaper pegged the cost of the operation at around $112 million.
According to Sky News, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse published its final report in 2022.
This inquiry, also led by professor Jay, called the sexual abuse of children an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.
The report, among other recommendations, said institutions that work with children should be mandated to report instances of child sexual abuse.
Jay last year said she was “frustrated” that none of the nearly two dozen recommendations had been implemented.
Why is Musk blaming Starmer?
Because Starmer was in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2008 to 2013.
Starmer in 2013 introduced new guidelines on how to treat victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) and how to prosecute such cases.
UK ministers have rallied to Starmer’s defence.
“Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed,” UK health secretary Wes Streeting said.
“But we’re willing to work with Elon Musk . I think he’s got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue. So if he wants to work with us, roll his sleeves up. We’d welcome that.”
Streeting added that “political correctness was able to get in the way of going off the perpetrators of these serious crimes.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Streeting added.
With inputs from agencies
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