Bristol Somali sex abuse gang: Race "not a relevant factor"

By Anira Khokhar
Saturday, November 29, 2014

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Yesterday Operation Brook concluded with convictions against the second group of men who were involved in Sexual Exploitation of young women, the reporting of the verdict has always been very biased, focusing on the ethnicity of these men, rather than the crime. This was also the case with the Rotherham verdicts.

What needs to be made clear is that this crime has nothing to do with race or religion; it’s merely about a mind-set that these perpetrators have. They focus their attention and play on the vulnerabilities of their victims, something that has been consistent with all sexual exploitation cases.

Many people forget that historically there is a stronger support system for British white victims to come forward against such crimes, and for those crimes to be taken to court. This does not suggest that the same issues are not also prevalent within BME victims, the only difference is that due to cultural pressures, ranging from the honour of families, Community status and reprisals, many BME victims won’t even go as far as even discussing their cases with the police, let alone taking them to court.

Speculation has it that a few young Somali girls were also victims in this particular Bristol case, but due to the issues around reprisals and support they chose not to take their cases forward. Sadly if this is the case, then we have bigger issues to resolve, how many victims of Sexual Exploitation have had to remain silent from the BME communities and ways in which communities can provide the right support and confidential services to ensure such victims don’t feel the pressure of how they will be seen in their own communities, if they choose to speak out.

Many of the victims in this case tend to come from similar backgrounds, poor families, broken families, local authority care, low literacy etc. This is then played on by the gangs and groups who show a better life but instead draw these victims into a horrific life.

However, one similarity between the victims and the gangs/groups involved is they also have similar backgrounds, but their incentives are based on making money, by any means.

In North Yorkshire, a similar case also took place, where a group of white men were sentenced for sexual exploitation offences against a 13 year old girl. However, the media chose not to cover this story as much, and when they did, the title read ’10 men jailed over North Yorkshire girl’s sexual exploitation’, not even mentioning the ethnicity of the group of men or the ethnicity of the victim. Such media biases causes further alienation amongst communities and community relations are destroyed.

Studies that were carried out in 2011 by CEOPC (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) and in 2012 by the OCC (The Office of the Children’s Commissioner) showed two different findings.

The CEOPC’s report was based only on police data. The data was submitted by 31 police forces around the UK and was based on 57 groups who were suspected of sexually exploiting young teenagers and adults based on their vulnerability and not through any interest in children. The data showed 50% of perpetrators were Asian, 21% were all-white and 17% were from multiple ethnicities. It also showed that 24% of group members were under 20 and 53% were between 20 and 30. There were 144 victims, all from whom the police identified their age and ethnicity. 97% came under the category of white, of which 3% were aged between 12 -13, 57% were 14-15, and 40% 16-17. Over 50% of these victims were in local authority care and out of the 144, 118 were girls.

However, the OCC’s report found that 36% of perpetrators from gangs or groups were white, 27% were Asian, and 16% were from undisclosed ethnic backgrounds. The report clarified after further investigation perpetrators described as ‘Asian’ turned out to include Afghans, Kurdish and White British. 60% of the victims were recorded as ‘White’ with 14% falling under the category of unknown. The report also went into further detail into the profiling of victims by professionals, who in many cases have categorised the victims as being mainly white, even when this hasn’t been the case.

The report also stated that data in some cases was seriously flawed and that authorities only recorded and collected the ethnicity of some groups and not others, specifically mentioning that more focus was on males in the Pakistani and Kurdish communities. The report also found that many victims from BME communities were less likely to report such abuse due to the issues I mentioned above, than White British children.

As a community we have systematically failed both the young victims and the young perpetrators in this case. There are some serious questions that need to be asked to social services about the protection of these young victims. However, we also need to question the criminal justice system and youth services who deliver support to young perpetrators and offenders, especially in this case where some of the gang members, were known to the relevant institutions and had a history of criminal activities.

Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, we are all in this together, race, religion, ethnicity, is not a relevant factor, it plays no part in grooming or sexual exploitation/abuse. Each community has a role to play, we all need to identify cases such as these and refer them to the relevant agencies as early as possible. We also have to support young victims from specific communities by empowering them and encouraging them to speak out against any atrocities that they have faced and that they will not be shunned or looked down upon by their communities. Last but not least as humans, we all have to come together as one voice and one community to tackle this increasingly worrying misogynistic culture.

As a British Muslim woman, I welcome the day when women will not be objectified again and again and again. I leave you with one verse from the Quran, which has given me the strength and confidence to tackle such controversial issues, and talks specifically about justice for everyone.

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