KABUL: (Middle East Press) More child sexual abuse scandals like the one that happened in Rotherham will be uncovered in the coming months, a police chief has said.
Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey told the Guardian that child sex crimes had “for too long been hidden”.
He also said teachers and doctors should do more to spot signs of abuse.
At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham from 1997 to 2013, mainly by gangs of men of Pakistani heritage.
Mr Bailey, the leading officer within the Association of Chief Police Officers concerned with the issue of child abuse, has warned that the scale of the problem countrywide could be larger than previously thought.
“We don’t know for sure. But I think it’s tens of thousands of victims per year of an appalling crime,” Mr Bailey said.
The bigger picture is that 90% of child sexual abuse takes place in the home where crimes are being perpetuated upon victims by people they know already. It is really important that we get some context around this.”
Concern has since grown that police were weak in dealing with other sex abuse cases in Doncaster and Barnsley, as detailed in a report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in September.
