How I was branded a racist - for trying to save girls from their vile abusers: Former MP ANN CRYER on the accusations she has faced after daring to say these are culturally-routed crimes.
By Ann Cryer, Former Labour Mp For Keighley, West Yorkshire For The Daily Mail00:56, 11 Aug 2017, updated 02:02, 11 Aug 2017
Flicking through the newspapers at my home in West Yorkshire yesterday, I found myself struggling with conflicting emotions.
Yes, I welcomed the successful conviction — this time in Newcastle — of another predatory gang for exploiting and abusing vulnerable girls.
And I felt immense relief that 18 people, all but one of them men, are no longer free to groom, drug, assault and rape children, to incite prostitution or profit from human trafficking.
Flicking through the newspapers at my home in West Yorkshire yesterday, I found myself struggling with conflicting emotions.
Yes, I welcomed the successful conviction — this time in Newcastle — of another predatory gang for exploiting and abusing vulnerable girls.
And I felt immense relief that 18 people, all but one of them men, are no longer free to groom, drug, assault and rape children, to incite prostitution or profit from human trafficking.
BBC Drama Three Girls, shown earlier this year, brought to life the scandal of the Rochdale grooming for viewers
There was pride, too, that my work as an MP has helped expose this evil. But there was also huge frustration.
It is almost 15 years since I first sounded a warning about the plight of young white girls being exploited by men from Asian communities in Britain.
Yet on Wednesday evening, as I watched the TV news, it was clear to me there are broadcasters still reluctant to state the basic facts about who the abusers are, for fear of appearing racist or Islamophobic.
Let us be clear: the men in the dock were mainly British-born from Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish and Indian communities, where I have seen a deep-rooted misogyny that perpetrates this form of abuse.