Farrukh Dhondy | The Rising ‘Grooming Gang’ Menace in UK: Will a Probe Expose the Truth & Coverup?

“Life, love and talent are all extinguished by time --

That relentless bastard pursues the sublime

Yes, all go to oblivion and mostly leave no trace

And all we can do, Bachchoo, is laugh in his face!”

From A Kela -- The Lonely Banana, by Bachchoo

Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has, after publicly rejecting the idea for several months, instituted a national inquiry into “grooming gangs”. This has caused the Opposition to crow about government U-turns, implying that Keir Starmer and his government stand for nothing but are blown by the winds of public and other opinion. The “other” in this case is the intervention in January of Elon Musk, a citizen of some country across an ocean, who feels emboldened (because he’s very rich?) to dictate policy to all and sundry in the world. In this case of grooming gangs, he demanded that a national inquiry be held into their cause, progress and prevention.

Why did Muskrat feel he should fan that particular British flame? Because all or 99 per cent of the perpetrators of this crime, some tried, convicted and serving severe sentences, are of Pakistani origin and Donald Trump as central arse-licker adopts his master’s voice which pronounces, in attitude and policy, against immigrants and Muslims.

Let me tell you, gentle reader, what this grooming gangs’ phenomenon is: In several UK cities -- Oxford, Rotherham, Rochdale, Oldham and Derby, among them -- gangs of British-Pakistani men picked on vulnerable teenage, mainly white, girls from broken families who lived in what are government social-care homes, “groomed” them with drugs and gifts and even the pretence of beginning a loving and protective relationship with a single young man, and then subjected them to sex through persuasion and rape with several of the members of his “gang”.

The time-line of this heinous criminal activity is now public knowledge. The earliest record of it is complaints from girl victims from care homes to the police and the local council in Rotherham in 2001. They said they were picked up by Pakistani taxi-drivers and were, in any legal sense, raped. The police did nothing.

The first conviction resulted in 2010 (!), nine years later, from these and other complaints, despite Channel Four TV transmitting a documentary in 2004 which interviewed several victims of this grooming phenomenon in which vulnerable, mostly underage, girls were serially, systematically raped by members of these grooming gangs.

The documentary’s transmission was delayed by several months as the police, council members and perhaps executives at Channel Four (I used to work there, but this happened six years after my time) thought that it could inflame racial tensions.

And that, gentle readers, has been the constant, supposed caution in the investigation, exposure and prosecution of these gangs of men.

In 2010 eleven men were convicted of this serious, socially significant crime. A few months later Andrew Norfolk, a Times journalist, pursued the story and insisted on it being published despite being accused of “racism” and providing factual ammunition to far-right Islamophobes.

Nevertheless, the Times did publish the truth and publication in the nation’s “prestigious” daily instigated the first national inquiry into the grooming gangs.

From 2011 to 2025, in several city courts -- Oxford, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Rochdale and Huddersfield -- 61 men have been convicted of these particular sexual offences. In 2018, for instance, twenty men, mainly of Pakistani origin, were convicted in Huddersfield of rape and sexual abuse offences against fifteen girls and sentenced to a total of 221 years.

But enough statistics! There have been ten inquiries into this disgraceful phenomenon and it now emerges that none, or very few, of the recommendations made by those holding the inquiry in conclusion have been acted upon.

Sir Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister in this government, claim that they changed their minds and are instituting a national inquiry not remotely because of some American billionaire’s urging, but because they have been convinced by the leaders of pervious inquiries that a fresh brief be designed to specifically ensure that the government agencies or institutions such as the police, the social services and the judiciary are given specific guidance to ensure these crimes never happen again.

The national inquiry’s brief has yet to be defined. Of course, it will look into the inhibitory factors that prevented the social services and the police from acting more swiftly in past cases. It will recommend closing gaps and combating inhibitions.

In my humble opinion, it should certainly examine, in some detail, the mentality of the groomers and even the local cultural traditions or attitudes that enable the groomers to feel they can victimise young white vulnerable girls in this undoubtedly criminal, cruel way. This examination will prove, beyond questionability, that their actions have nothing to do with being Muslim and nothing indeed to do with being Pakistani. Billions of Muslims and millions of Pakistanis don’t behave in this way. Al Capone and his gang may have been Christians but that didn’t make them Mafiosi! It’s nothing to do with being Christian!

This element of the enquiry report should convince Britain that Muskovich and the far-right are pushing their own prejudices. Despite the Brexit vote, my conviction is that British democracy can see through their manipulative contentions.

(PS: Just as the United Nations does ludicrous surveys classifying the “happiest” nations, they should do one on the most and least mature democracies. I would provide the criteria -- for a fee of course!)