by

Daniele Scalea

A Nation Wakes Up to Its Bitterest Reality
In recent years, the issue of so-called "grooming gangs" in the UK has exploded into public consciousness. This vile practice of forced prostitution has involved gangs, predominantly of Pakistani descent, systematically exploiting young white girls, often minors, across various British cities. The nation's awakening to this horror has been both late and agonizing, with recognition only after considerable harm had already been inflicted. Recently, the scandal has ignited a heated public debate as new abuse cases emerged in cities like Oldham, with court documents unveiling the chilling details of the trauma inflicted on these very young girls.
Last September, an editorial in "The Telegraph" by former Tory minister Suella Braverman brought this issue back into the spotlight. The Indian-origin politician, known for her firm stance against Islamist extremism, pointed out that the sexual predators in these grooming gangs are almost exclusively Pakistani immigrants, accusing them of harboring cultural attitudes completely at odds with British values. The Left has tried to downplay or relativize the issue. In early 2025, Jess Phillips, the Under-Secretary for "Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls," (sic) rejected Oldham Council's call for a public inquiry into child prostitution. Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, advocated for a national inquiry, but she was quickly criticized by Nigel Farage of Reform UK, who highlighted the Tories' previous inaction when they were in power (they also denied a public inquiry on Oldham in 2022).
A Legacy of Negligence and Cover-Up
This crisis has roots stretching back to the 1990s, but it wasn't until the early 2000s that cases began to surface publicly. Labour MP Ann Cryer and the Channel 4 documentary "Edge of the City" were among the first to shine a national spotlight on the grooming of white schoolgirls by Asian gangs. Their warnings were swiftly silenced by accusations of "racism." Cryer's political career ended shortly after, and the documentary was delayed at the behest of the police and supposed "anti-racist" groups.
The first major media explosion that the censorship couldn't contain occurred in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in 2011. That year, Andrew Norfolk published a series of investigative pieces in "The Times" about child prostitution. The journalist admitted to having hesitated for years to deal with the subject seriously, fearing to fuel far-right rhetoric. Meanwhile, nationalist activist Tommy Robinson (now imprisoned for his documentary Silenced) began campaigning against these foreign rape gangs.
Norfolk's primary source was Jayne Senior, who led a local child protection group. As early as the early 2000s, one of her team members, Adele Weir, had meticulously reported the situation to local police and authorities. Despite documenting 54 cases of abuse by the Hussain family, Rotherham's authorities – staunchly Labour – dismissed all evidence, accusing Weir of fabrication and racism. She was intimidated, her documents were stolen, and she was eventually silenced.
The Horror Revealed: The Jay Report
Decades (and countless victims) later, the problem could no longer be ignored. The authorities commissioned Professor Alexis Jay to investigate, leading to the 2014 publication of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013). The Jay Report was explosive, revealing that at least 1,400 girls (in a city of 100,000!) had been sexually abused over the previous sixteen years. Almost all victims were white, and almost all perpetrators were Pakistani, despite only 5% of Rotherham's population being of Pakistani origin.
The details were horrific: girls drugged, threatened, beaten, and coerced into repeated gang rapes by numerous men. Not isolated incidents, but teenage girls enslaved for years by groups of immigrants. Police, politicians, and local services showed a shocking reluctance to act, fearing accusations of racism or disrupting "community cohesion." This enabled predators to operate unhindered for years, and, as Jay noted with anguish, to continue their abuses even as her report was published.
Only from 2016 were the first convictions handed down for Rotherham's crimes. The last set of 7 men received their sentences in 2024. All those convicted (at least 36) are of Pakistani descent, except possibly one who might be of Iranian origin.
The Scandal Spreads Beyond Rotherham
In subsequent years, similar scandals emerged in cities such as Rochdale, Huddersfield, Telford, and Oxford, revealing similar patterns of abuse: Pakistani groups grooming young white girls for sexual slavery while authorities turned a blind eye.
In Rochdale, for instance, multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police left young victims vulnerable to their abusers for nearly a decade. The stories of these young women describe grooming outside schools, initiation into alcohol and drugs, group violence by predominantly Pakistani men, and threats of retaliation if they sought help. Several inquiries exposed the failure of Rochdale's police and local council (heavily left-leaning) to protect these girls. In 2012, nine men, all of Pakistani origin, were convicted.
Since 2018, 41 individuals, seemingly all Pakistani, have been convicted for sexual abuses in Huddersfield. The victims were young girls, some as young as 11 at the onset of the abuse.
Telford has seen sexual crimes on a scale comparable to Rotherham, with abuses documented since the 1980s involving over 1,000 minors, as confirmed by Tom Crowther's 2022 inquiry, which the Labour-led local council tried to avoid at all costs.

In the university town of Oxford, starting in 2013, a total of 21 men of Pakistani origin have been convicted.

Grooming gang cases have surfaced in numerous other English cities like Newcastle, Bristol, Aylesbury, Peterborough, Keighley, Bradford, Oldham, Halifax, Banbury, Derby, Brighton. The list is likely longer, as we've only begun to illuminate this dark criminal phenomenon.

Institutional negligence wasn't just a localized issue. It was systemic, with a widespread failure by authorities to safeguard society's most vulnerable. The victims are predominantly white girls from impoverished backgrounds; the perpetrators almost all Pakistani or of foreign descent, shielded in the name of multiculturalism. Indigenous convicts are rare: with at least 150-200 individuals sentenced for grooming gang crimes, only a handful are known to be native offenders.
Censorship and Cover-Up: How Authorities Smothered the Scandal
The approach of authorities towards these grooming gangs was marked by censorship and cover-up, allowing abuse to continue unchecked.
Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgway documented Manchester Police's negligence in numerous official reports before resigning in 2024 in protest at the lack of cooperation from law enforcement with their investigation. Journalist Charlie Peters from "GB News" has met with many victims' parents in various cities, all reporting that not only did the police ignore their complaints, but they even intimidated victims and their families with threats of arrest if they made trouble.

In 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) was released by an official commission established in 2015 and chaired by Professor Alexis Jay since 2016. While the IICSA made some concessions to political correctness (noting that "only" the vast majority, not all, of the perpetrators were of Pakistani origin), it confirmed that the phenomenon was widespread across England and Wales, with particularly harmful and degrading abuses. The report once again highlighted the authorities' failures due to fears of being labeled "racist."

Politicians have also played a part in this failure. Some Labour Party members, like former leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, have been accused of downplaying the issue or denying there was a specific problem linked to South Asian men. In 2017, Corbyn forced the resignation of Rotherham MP Sarah Champion from her shadow cabinet role for stating there was a problem with "British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls." Mayor Khan, of Pakistani descent himself, described statements about the ethnicity of the attackers as "dog whistle politics" (essentially, coded racist messaging to the public).
Keir Starmer's Controversial Role
Keir Starmer, now the UK's Prime Minister, was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008 to 2013, during which time these grooming gangs operated unchecked. Under his tenure as DPP, Starmer oversaw the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which decides on prosecutions.
Among his prominent critics is former police officer Maggie Oliver, who led some of the initial investigations against grooming gangs before resigning in protest at what she perceived as systemic failure in protecting sexual abuse victims. Oliver was part of Operation Span, which in 2009 identified a network of rapists exploiting girls in Manchester. The CPS, under Starmer's watch, decided not to proceed with charges against some of the men involved, deeming the victims' testimonies unreliable due to their known substance abuse issues.

Recently, Elon Musk has also lambasted Starmer for his role as DPP. Critics suggest that the current Prime Minister promoted a policy of "cultural sensitivity" that delayed and in some cases prevented investigations and prosecutions against these gangs.

Cultural Dimensions and Multiculturalism Critiques
Some argue to minimize the issue by stating that most sexual abuse in the UK is committed by white individuals. This argument is fundamentally flawed. What's newsworthy about crimes being committed by the majority population? It's expected. What's completely overlooked is the disproportionate representation of South Asian men in sexual crimes, particularly in grooming gang cases.
According to a 2017 Quilliam Foundation report, conducted by British-Pakistani researchers, an astonishing 84% of those convicted for grooming gang crimes were of South Asian origin, despite this community making up only 7% of the UK population. These figures highlight a significant disproportion that can't be dismissed as merely demographic reflection but rather as indicative of a specific problem within this community.
Journalist Charlie Peters summarized the issue:
For decades, gangs of largely British Pakistani men deliberately targeted and abused underage white girls. And the authorities did nothing because they did not want to rock the boat of racial tensions. They literally prioritised community cohesion over the safety and security of women and girls.
Branding those who raise this issue as racists or promoters of xenophobic narratives is an attempt to evade critical examination of cultural practices that might contribute to such crimes. It's not about harmful discrimination but acknowledging a real problem and addressing it with measures to protect the most vulnerable.
Conclusion
The facts and figures of this described phenomenon are chilling. The aforementioned Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham committed to victim protection, has speculated that the total number of victims in the UK could reach a staggering million. This is speculation without hard data, but not entirely implausible when considering the at least 1,400 victims in Rotherham alone. The inhabitants of this town represent 0.18% of England and Wales' population; extrapolating this data nationally would suggest nearly 800,000 victims. And remember, the Jay Report's estimates cover only a limited time frame, and evidence of grooming gangs is now beginning to emerge in Scotland as well.
The saga of grooming gangs in the UK is a dark chapter that forces us to critically reflect on how society manages cultural diversity, protects its youth, and the effectiveness of its institutions. Despite recent efforts to tackle the problem, there's a lingering sense that action has come too late, and that silence and fear of confronting uncomfortable truths have caused irreparable damage to generations of young women. The true challenge now is not only to deliver justice for the victims but also to rebuild trust in a system that has failed so dramatically.
P.S.: And in Italy?
From an Italian perspective, what has come to light in Britain should serve as a wake-up call and spur maximum vigilance. Without intending to criminalize an entire nationality, it's evident that the Pakistani diaspora in the UK has shown an undeniable, disproportionate inclination towards the sexual exploitation of white adolescents. The targeting of indigenous girls wasn't by chance: court documents are full of references to the racist slurs used by Pakistani criminals against their white victims, calling them "white bitches."
With over 200,000 Pakistanis now in Italy, making up one of the most significant groups among recent illegal immigrants, a thorough investigation should be launched into the socio-cultural factors that predisposed Pakistanis in the UK to commit the crimes described. Identifying these factors could assess Italy's risk level and work towards preventing any replication of the UK's horrific scenario.
Daniele Scalea
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Founder and President of Centro Studi Machiavelli. A graduate in History (University of Milan) and Ph.D. in Political Studies (Sapienza University), he teaches “History and Doctrine of Jihadism” at Marconi University and “Geopolitics of the Middle East” at Cusano University, where he has also taught on Islamic extremism in the past.

From 2018 to 2019, he served as Special Advisor on Immigration and Terrorism to Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Guglielmo Picchi; he later served as head of the technical secretariat of the President of the Parliamentary Delegation to the Central European Initiative (CEI).

Author of several books, including Immigration: the reasons of populists, which has also been translated into Hungarian.