E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
The Times
The front page of Wednesday's Times newspaper in London.
LONDON - The organized sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13, for which nine men were jailed in Britain Wednesday, is abuse in the most pernicious form imaginable.
Last year I spent six months investigating this crime for British television on Channel 4's investigative news show, Dispatches. It was one of the most grueling stories I have worked on in my 17 years as a journalist.
I met victims, their families, police investigators and people who helped the victims piece together their broken lives – as well as men with an inside knowledge about the underworld of ‘on-street grooming’.
I spent time in some of the areas where these crimes took place and listened in great detail to the nature of the crime and the impact it had on the young victims.
I was haunted by what I learned. During my time off or away from the story, I had vicious nightmares. Graphic accounts of rape and sexual abuse are not easy to put out of mind when heard in detail, especially not when the victims are barely pubescent. The men I met, who spoke to me anonymously about the motivations of the gangs who carry out these crimes, told me things that disgusted and enraged me. That was the impact on me, a professionally dispassionate reporter long accustomed to remaining cool no matter what the story. Imagine the impact on someone at the heart of this terrible crime.
Investigating Britain's 'sex gangs'
The parents of the victims, whose destroyed lives were so obviously in pieces, were fighting feelings of guilt, sadness and anger. And the girls, who had faced rape and gang-rape at the hands of men much, much older than them, were some of the bravest I've ever met. I saw pictures of them before their ordeal; they could have been anyone's daughter, sister or niece. But the girls who sat before me were damaged, perhaps beyond repair, their innocence stolen.
What I now find more terrifying than the crime is the sheer scale of it: case after case is turning up in British courts. What we know about it is still emerging, and those who work with the girls say organized sex abuse is at least a generation old. That, too, makes me shudder: There are victims who never received the help they needed or the justice they should have had.
Newspaper front pages on Wednesday showed the faces of the men who will now spend years in prison, but behind other closed doors there are girls whose lives were brutally stolen from them and whose future will always be marked by the horrors they faced in their childhood.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- 'Kill-or-be-killed' self-defense guru banned from UK
- Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold
- US charity's gift to UK troops: $2 million for 'sanctuary'
- $868K mystery: Nigeria stock exchange's yacht, Rolexes vanish
- UK jails 9 members of sex gang who 'shared' teen girls
- Heathrow chaos: Travelers spend longer in line than on jets
- Poll: Most Egyptians think US aid billions have 'negative effect'
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Leave a Comment:
Britain,he west don't need ANY more Meastern people.There are enough of us whites doing creepy awful stuff w/o any others
What? Did you stutter...
I think you may be pointing out the dangers of allowing Middle Eastern immigrants into England... if that's a case then you have a point despite the fact that your comment is incoherent.
Just a reminder to everyone to please keep within the posting guidelines, no matter what the topic. Thank you.
I can't put my finger on it but there's definitely something shady about the guy in the middle on the bottom row next to Zorro.
I misspelled to boot.But take a sec and dope it out. Oh oh,msnbc can't follow either-fools
The 'gangs' are apparently Pakistani Muslims, which appear to be a huge problem in Britain since the government has an 'open borders' policy with them.
As I have become aware as a parent that such gangs exist in our day my mind goes beyond the point of being horrified. I can't imagine, having precious daughters of my own, the condition and state of mind and heart of these innocent girls. They were robbed of a normal life, by beasts who call themselves men. I believe there isn't sufficient suffering these men could go through to equal the suffering of these beautiful young women whose lives they have destroyed for reasons of pure selfishness and lust. These men should be placed in the most horrible, deplorable conditions available in prison society and forced to labor the rest of their worthless lives.....my mind cannot even contemplate their wretched mindsets....their are not human but the most deplorable beasts...but even the beasts in our world know better than to treat one of their own in this manner.
Even the reporting by this Muslim reporter is biased.
Most involved are Pakis and one Afghan.
Is it not idiotic to permit such sexual beasts/lunatics and their families in? See their ages?
This is one of the most disgusting crimes against young people. I pray for the girls to have healing of the mind, body soul and spirit. I pray the men are reminded daily of the horror they have committed. If the British prisons are like American prisons I have no doubt they will never forget.
Perhaps it is time to go hunting.
I know it is wrong and I would beg God's forgiveness before and after. Those men would never make it to prison.
Sex gangs are alive and well in America as well. Not only are girls involved in these gangs but boys too. Pedophilia is more rampent than people realize.
Rape is NOT about sex. IT IS ABOUT RAGE AND CONTROL AND VIOLENCE. The reason women and children are usually the ones raped is because they are the easiest ones to be controlled and physically overcome. Every single rapist out there (unless you find a very self-enlightened sociopath) has a reason for why they rape. I'm sure these men used their upbringing and religious background to justify that there is nothing wrong with taking women with force who are not of their tribe, background and/or religion. Until people realize that rape has nothing to do with sex but EVERYTHING to do with power, we will be powerless to stop rape.
I hope news of this catastrophe spreads like wildfire, that beyond our justice system, prison justice will be far more brutal and cruel.
AGREED!!!!!
They should never make it to prison.
pained: you are going to absurd pains to make this about nationality instead of the sickening evil done to the vulnerable everywhere they're not rooted out. No one needs any more of your kind of hate mongering...and for the sake of decency, drop the GW moniker. He'd roll in his grave
Youre a fool if you think this is not based on racial hate. Muslims/Middle Eastern men consider white women and girls, especially blonds to be trash that can be abused. This is a racist and cultural issue.
Hans, white racist scum consider brown and black women as trash that can be abused. In fact they spent nearly 400 years raping black slave girls regularly. Even white racists presidents had black sex slaves so please spare every one the bs.
Nationality had an impact on the case as police did not investigate the complaintes and police did not take corrective actions.
Police did not want to be dubbed as "racists."
BFromNJ, thank you for the HISTORY lesson. There are for sure people that have hate for other races, BUT when they act on it in the USA, it is called a hate crime and people go to jail for a very long time, and if they kill someone in the process, they tend to get the death penalty BECAUSE our culture does not approve of what these people did. IN THEIR culture, they can do what they want because women are treated as property and non believers are just POS anyway.
Please do not detract from what they did and their friends ARE doing because wrong was done in the past. The past is the past, but this is happening NOW!
bFromNJ:
My ancestors didn't own any black slaves.
Also, got any idea what happened to the millions of whites who were captured by North African (Muslim) pirates BEFORE there was an African slave trade developed for European colonies?
I'll give you a clue. It wasn't any better.
Go read a book.
If you are referring to the Mediterranean slave trade, it went both ways. Christians captured a large number of Muslim slaves as well. This was driven by the fact that both sides "needed" slaves for their war galleys.
Race, color skin has nothing to do with it. What about the ultra white priests in the church? What about the countries that allow marrying at age 10. Not third world countries!
A.L.Smith Race, religion and culture have everything to do with it. 2 wrongs don't make a right so what Catholic priests do is irrelevant to this subject.
As has already been stated, men from certain cultures believe woman are inferior and should be oppressed and controlled. In this case, involving almost exclusively Pakistani men, they believe that white, non muslim women are trash and prostitutes and are there for them to exploit. This is not just speculation by me but now accepted as fact over here (I'm in the UK).
It's an American cultural phenomenon that speaking of anything race related is taboo and makes you a "racist" and unfortunately that mindset has infected this country to a certain extent which was wht this activity continued for so long with people afraid to speak out for fear of being labelled racist.
Britain does not have an open door immigration policy to Pakistanis but they are the second largest ethnic minority. What has really shocked people here is the group aspect of this behaviour. Most sex offenders act alone but these crimes indicate that Pakistanis regard rape of white women as perfectly acceptable within their culture
Well England how are the joys of diversity working out for you?
Let's be honest here and a bit fair to England. These are the activities of immigrants who are trying to carry on a custom that in their new home country that is not ok. And you can't just pin this on Muslims or Arabs either. I live in a town with a large percentage of immigrants from Mexico and there are regularly items in the news of record for a sex with a minor charge with the perpatrator being an immigrant and the victim usually being around 13-14. That's largely because in Mexico the age of consent is much lower than in the US and frequently it's a case of severe culture clash. I'm in no way defending or rationalizing this behavior but we have to realize that some countries have different standards than us and not everybody who immigrants assimilates easily or wants to assimilate at all.
You are actually making pained1's point!
Cletic the most kids institutionally raped anywhere in the world and in England is by white Catholic clergy, or is that the fault of "diversity" as well?
The sexual abuse by eight Pakis and one Afghan sexual beasts went on for many years.
Though complaints were lodged regularly, police did not act as they did not want to be dubbed as "racists."
About 50 teenagers were affected.
Kick out all Pakis and those Muslims from basket case nations from the US, Britain, European nations.
Their contributions to a society, nation and world are negative.
Isn't immigration wonderful?
The "melting pot" is more like a cauldron, is it not?
Other stories in English media say Police knew about this ring and their victims for years before doing anything. I really, really hope that is not the case. Whatever happened, the ring is now busted. People who do this to kids should get the death penalty to make examples for other sickos who'd think of doing this to kids.
The police and social services didn't want to bring out anything that might be racist towards the muslims. Which is totally naive and rediculous. These muslims were in the UK foremost to do this criminal act. Life in prison would be too good for them, they should be shot - what is the cost of a single bullet?
I believe if you come to another country and are not a naturalized citizen - them commit this type of crime or any serious crime, your sentence should be far worse than if you were a naturalized citizen. They knew what they were going to do when they first got to the UK.
This is only 9 of as many as 50 muslims that are actively doing this think as a gang. Where are the other 41?
Criminal muslims know they can use our and the UK laws against us and spout out rasicm to confuse our lawmakers. This cult is a dangerous one and the free world better start taking this threat very seriously. Just reading in the papers, they believe in honor killings of their children, treat their wives as cattle, willingly rape, murder anyone that is not of their faith, commit incest, etc. This they do as their rights as a cult and they think it is written in the koran and blessed to do so by their 'god'.
What does that say about their god - are these people mindless sheep who will follow unstable leaders? When do you feel that this cult will decide to become part of the human race and act like a human beings instead of the regressed 2nd century BC mentality?
Shot seems not good enough, how about chemical or physical castration! Better yet, can we feed them only pork while in prison?
Hey Pete, 50 "Muslims" as horrible as their actions are, are far less than thousands of Christian Catholics who have been molesting children for 2 thousand years. The rest of your ranting and raving is just nonsense, you obviously you haven't met any Muslims or studied anything about Islam.
Even the reporting by Ahmad is biased. He/she is acting like a saint and not reporting the actual news.
Fire the biased reporter Ahmad and send him/her to some Mohammad country.
bFromNJ
As much as some of Catholic priests are perverted, I never heard about priests gang raping a girl.
Even though both are unacceptable, there is a difference between molesting and raping.
And regarding muslim faith playing a role, - "With experts on paedophilia insisting street grooming by Muslim men was a real problem, Judge Gerald Clinton made it clear he believed religion was a factor."
Read more: #ixzz1uRMCAN1O
at tis site:
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141279/Rochdale-child-sex-trial-As-9-men-face-jail-grooming-girls-did-listen-victim.html
I guess South Asians aren't always flighty and mild-mannered like Tweety Bird after all.
Pakistani are as cold blooded and ruthless as they come.
DO you hate all pakistanis, or all Muslims, or all immigrants? you bigot
De-maculation (that's as nice as I can be at the moment) would be to good for these monsters.
Even the reporting by Ahmad is biased. He/she is acting like a saint and not reporting the actual news.
Fire the biased reporter Ahmad and send him/her to some Mohammad country.
This is to be expected when the host country caters to the immigrant population. If immigrants wantt o practice the customs of their native lands they should be sent home.
Deport everyone back to their homeland, I say.
These people are not human, to do this to a child. Execute, rinse, repeat.
So, 4 years for a gang rape gang involving multiple underage girls reduce to 9 months for good behavior and again to 23 days for time served. A simple slap on the wrist.
The British seem to really enjoy having pedophile rapists in their country. No wonder "Prince" Charles likes the older lady - he probably has a new 13-year-old girl brought to him every day. Don't need a young wife, just a tolerant one, one that will help you procure those girls. That's how Roman dictators chose their wives after all.
If one of these were my daughters, I would have happily and with a clear conscience killed judges, politicians, policeman, or anyone else who did not support making sure that each of these criminals served a minimum of twenty years.
I think the British are sick, spineless, and perverted to accept such pathetically small sentences for these crimes.
Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where, exactly, is your evidence that Prince Charles is a child molester, except for the fact that he looks kinda creepy?
Marty, I can assure you that we Brits are sick and tired of this nonsense too. I would be happy if these monsters were hung, drawn and quartered. We're not happy with their sentences either, we are not spineless, but our police most certainly are.
This is similar to what happened in Sweeden with Muslim and Middle Eastern men gang raping young blond females. However, no one has the guts to touch the racism involved - Muslim men in general hold women, especially blonde white women in low regard and consider them disposable sex objects...and I am being polite in my choice of words.
This is a product both their religion and culture. Although the Holy Qurran spells out that such crimes are unforgivable, like so many F***ed up cultures, religion has been twisted and used to justify hate, violence, racism, abuse of women and crime. We have a similar problem in the USA, with not only muslims but black males....however their abuse is not justified with religion but "I iz jus been tru to ma cultur". Doubt it? listen to the lyrics of nearly any rap song.
I say publically behead them with a dull knife. I volunteer my services for the job.
Tell me again how banning guns is a good thing?? criminals don't feel safe when the public carries weapons. That must be who the government is trying to protect. Criminals ..
One more reason to stop all the p.c. (because you don't want to offend anyone?!) What is wrong in the world when your afraid to offend child RAPIST & pedolfiles!!!?? E.U. so hard up for people that they have to import or let them migrate into the country? SIC and disgusting animals. You can't even call them people. No matter WHAT race and from what I've read and from my own personal research & what was articulated to me, this is common practices in most m.e. cultures.
I'm having a hard time listenign to people minimize these actions to a race, religion and so forth. There are sick people everywhere. Can't wait to hear the comments when it is a white christian from America. How are you going to justify that
All I got to say is Catholics lol, white men molesting boys for the past two thousand years.
who do you hate more? Christians, Whites or Americans?
I hate those individuals who blame, abuse and slander all Muslims, Islam, immigrants or any one race for the actions of a few. And in this case it mostly happens to be white Christians I just wanted to show them their face in the mirror. I have no problem with, and in fact respect and love, whites Christians or otherwise who do not partake in the above mentioned behavior.
All I know is that I spent three days at Heathrow Airport back in March of 1982. While I sat there I thought I was in India or Pakistan by seeing all those people passing in and out of the airport.
send them all back to there countries and keep the rest out.....muslims are no good for anything...
Where should we send the biggest child raping group the white western catholic clergy? Christians and not just ordinary ones they are the leaders lol are you ok with Jesus loving child molesters? this group of Christians has become synonymous with child molestation, rape and abuse and they are they biggest single Christian group on the face of the planet. so stop the bigotry MARY!
B from nj sure does seem to hate whites and loves Muslim child rapers. sickening view of the world.
Stop the bigotry MARY? BFromNJ, you sure seem to have a hard on for the Catholic Church. Are you feeling like you were left out?
Leroy and Mosineur, Mary said "Muslims are no good for anything" and neither of you fair minded individuals saw anything bigoted about that, yet when I spoke about facts both of you went up in flames. Leroy you bigot, I hate these individuals who committed these horrible actions, I only have a problem when people label entire groups as one thing because of the actions of the few. I do not believe the Christians or Catholics are all bad, but every few days when another priest, or any clergy man from any denomination is busted for raping boys or other crimes no one blames all of the Catholics or Christians for the behavior of the few, as it should be because it is the actions of the few. Yet let a man named Ahmed kill a fly and all Muslims are terrorists, or let a man named Leroy rob a liqour store and all blacks are animals and thieves. I am only showing these individuals their hypocrisy and how bigoted they are. You get my point or am I just wasting my time here?
Admitted immigrants without true education, just on the basis of some ones relation without proper back ground check, political asylum is like milking snake. Just deport them back
its not just the britsh or muslims that do these crimes it s right here in the USA 2 dont think were moraly up- right and dont think they dont hide behind the faith either my belife is thaat ne1 engaged in this type of crime wether its 1 child or 100 needs life without parole incarcerated in the general population and let there crime be known 2 the other convicts oh dont let them buy vasaline at the prison store
Phil I agree with you. But these people over look the biggest group of child molesters in the whole wide world, yes of course the biggest child raping group, which is a plague, is the Catholic clergy, white men who believe in Jesus as God and adhere to the Bible bone little boys in the rear and mostly get away with it. Its funny how some people are blaming Muslims or Islam yet the religion to which child molestation has become synonymous with is completely ignored perhaps because they are Christian and mostly Christians or whites are commenting here?
You guys bend over backwards to try to cover for the horrific acts of these 50 old, scummy,racist, Muslim, monsters. . then you spin it to make all the people commenting here try to look racist then you blame a different religion and white people. You also throw in a Shiite load of anti Americanism.They were all old Muslim men from Pakistan that targeted 14 y o white girls to abuse, drug, and rape. No whites, no Christians, no Americans arrested. When they all get out of prison why don't you 2 geniuses adopt these angels and support them. You obviously think just like them. Maybe you can force your children to sexually serve your heroes while they suffer in prison.
Lery you must have a rock for a brain, no one is defending the actions of these 50 monsters, you must be a simpleton. I have made my self plenty clear in my replies to you previous objections.
Even the death penalty---which far to many "politicians" are against as "inhumane"---is too soft a punishment for these monsters. I say stuff a poisonous snake up their behinds and bury them alive in pig excrement. Do it once and this type of crime will stop immediately.
Well at least they don't have guns.
good morning Arizona. I see Holder is suing Sheriff Joe again. They sure are targeting Arizona a lot. Congress is getting impatient with Holders Stonewalling. Even Dem senators are starting to call for him to step down. Stay cool tumbleweed.
More wonderful "diversity" at work... the UK is messed up.. I just got done reading an article about a self defense teacher who was refused entry to the UK because of what he teaches.... maybe he shoulda told them he was a pedophile....
Sad to see this being turned into a racism debate rather then comments on the horror of this is unbelievable episode. As for the racism, lets not forget the "pleasure trips" from the "civilized countries" (Western Europe and USA) to third world countries dubbed as "Sex tourism", for the same, exact purpose.
It was an organized racist Hate crime against whites. Apologize for this scum all you want. your heroes are getting locked up. I'm sure you can send them money to support them.
leroy you say "it was an organized racist crime against whites" does that make it ok to make racist comments against all Pakistanis, all south Asians, all Muslims or all immigrants? what thiinblue58 is saying is that we should talk about the individuals who committed these actions or the actions that were committed, and not smear entire sections of society with hate filled comments because that my friends is called racism and bigotry!!!. It reminds me of a time when one African American was blamed for raping a white women, he was then beaten and hung and there onward all of African American Males were labeled as lusting white women, was this ok to label an entire section of society like this? Leroy its you who is the racist!
These people shouldn't be in prison, they should be 6 feet under the ground. I guess the English government will give them money to sue the girls for telling and ruining their livelihood like they did for the goons that invaded that farmers house years ago.
At a bare minimum these people should be deported after their sentences, and if citizenship revoked.