Free Republic

Two local councillors, one of whom is still serving, and a police officer have been accused of having sex with victims involved in the Rotherham child abuse scandal. The South Yorkshire Police constable at the centre of the allegations is also alleged to have passed on information to gangs grooming young girls in the town. A second police officer has been accused of neglecting his duties after failing to report his colleague. Both claims are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Police watchdog examining how South Yorkshire force treated complaints of industrial-scale child sexual exploitation in the town, laid bare in Jay report. Investigators looking at how the police treated complaints of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham say they are now working to identify more than 100 officers. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was continuing to examine police conduct exactly a year on from the publication of the Jay report, which exposed the scale of child rape, trafficking and grooming in the South Yorkshire town. Professor Alexis Jay’s report described how more than 1,400 children were sexually exploited...

Walker discovers 5,000-year-old log path on moorFind to shed new light on Neolithic man Emma Dunlop FOR 5,000 years one of the world's oldest ever footpaths has remained a hidden secret, locked deep beneath the earth in South Yorkshire. That was until walker Mick Oliver quite literally stumbled across it while one day traipsing across Hatfield Moor, near Doncaster, shortly after it was re-opened to walkers in October last year. "I looked down and I could see a straight line. I thought, that's unusual, maybe it's a bog oak – a fossilised tree – so I'll go and have a...

At least 300 possible suspects have been identified by investigators probing the Rotherham child sex exploitation scandal. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said most of the potential suspects were Asian men, while the vast majority of victims were young British girls. The NCA launched a major investigation into the scandal after a damning report by Professor Alex Jay last year, revealed that as many as 1,400 children had been raped, trafficked and groomed by mainly Asian gangs in the South Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013. Following the revelations South Yorkshire police, which was criticised for its handling of abuse...

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, admitted nothing was done about the “very entrenched” child sex exploitation in his region following the first warnings over 10 years ago because the girls were then seen as child prostitutes not victims. ... abusers were able to carry on with “impunity” across South Yorkshire and particularly in Sheffield and Rotherham. Dr Heal said she was once told by a senior officer that “it was awful but burglary and car crime were policing priorities set by the government.”

"Seven Men Arrested Under Terror Act The arrests followed a routine stop of a vehicle by police on the M1 motorway in South Yorkshire on June 30." SNIPPET: ""Firearms, offensive weapons and other material were later found hidden inside, prompting police to take action to trace and arrest the driver, passenger and others suspected of being involved," he said. Police said three men aged 23, 26 and 27 from Sparkhill, Birmingham, were arrested on Tuesday morning. Three more suspects, a 22-year-old from Alum Rock, Birmingham, a 24-year-old from the Moseley area of the city, and a 22-year-old from Smethwick, West...