EXPOSED: Ex-policeman blows whistle on politicians and mosques who influenced grooming gangs investigation

The failures to properly investigate and arrest the abusers at the time and protect the child victims, some of whom were young as 11, continue to be exposed as the renewed spotlight on the scandal in the Yorkshire town encourages more survivors to come forward.

Just last month, one grooming gang survivor submitted a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over its investigation into the conduct of South Yorkshire Police officers in handling the exploitation cases, also known as Operation Linden.

She lamented a lack of “compassion” and “empathy” from investigators but was now especially concerned that the report had not sufficiently investigated her case.

From how the force was governed at the time to a pervasive fear of being accused of racism and the political environment in which the officers operated within, the retired officer exposes a patchwork of failures that hindered the police investigations into the grooming gang abusers.

Darren Jones, whose name we changed to protect his anonymity, served during the same period as the grooming gang scandals.

To understand what went wrong, you have to look at the "general makeup" of the force and how they worked with local politicians and the community at that time, he tells GB News.

Jones is keen to stress that "I've got no gripe with the force. I've got no particular commander that I want to drop in it. I don't want anybody to get in trouble" but that "there are lessons to be learned".

At the time of the abuses, "because of the Asian influence in Rotherham, there were a lot of people not touched because they were just absolutely sh**t scared, for want of a better word, of daring to question any sort of Asian activity, because at that time Rotherham council was heavily populated by people of the Asian community", he claims.

Jones does not suggest that anybody covered up a "particular name or any information" but claims local Labour councillors, who were heavily involved with the mosques, would lean on police officers to look the other way.

"The Labour councillors would go into the mosques and be on the board of mosques. They would talk to the elders to ensure the message was passed down to all the family units that they should vote for them. It was a way of controlling what's happening," he alleged.

Jones explains how this impacted police conduct, outlining how Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) were introduced around 2004 under the Labour government as part of a wider effort to improve community policing.

Key objectives would include strengthening local engagement between the police and communities, and local politicians would help facilitate this.

"We were co-located in council buildings and working in partnership with the council's management structure, if you like," he said.

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On the one hand, this integration "was a brilliant system. It worked very well", he says, adding: "If you needed someone to get you into organisations, it just opened a few back doors."

But there was a dark side to this relationship, Jones says.

""The mayors and other elected people at that time were very influential over what was happening in the police. They would put a lot of pressure on the commanders and the chiefs, and certainly, the Muslim ear would get a greater listen to. If they ever want anything, it would be immediate. They [the police] didn't want any flack from councillors."

The retired officer added: "We always say the police are independent of political intrusion, but they're not."

He cites concrete examples of how this would play out on duty.

If something happened at the mosque or within the Asian community, it would provoke a "knee-jerk" response from the police, Jones claims.

He understood this to a point as "there's a lot of racially motivated sort of activity in crime", but claims "it would take precedence over a lot more important things", noting that other communities, such as the local Catholic church, did not receive the same level of treatment.

"They'd [the Mosques] would have these minority group boards where they'd come forward, and there would be some key people on there that would direct things.

"They had a louder voice than white British people. That's the long and short of it."

While acknowledging the force's historic failures, lessons have been learned since then, Jones is keen to stress.

"From a policing perspective, I think they've probably got their eye on the ball now; I know that the teams now involved insexual abuse investigations are massive. If there are any allegations of things like that, I think it's investigated straight away. I think they are on board with that now."

In response to a request for comment, Detective Superintendent Pete Quinn, South Yorkshire Police’s strategic lead for Child Safeguarding, said: “There never has and there never will be a good reason for failing to properly investigate child sexual exploitation. Whilst the abuse of young people in Rotherham in the late 90s and early 00s will always be of profound regret to South Yorkshire Police, it was the beginning of an improved future – a future of independent and national oversight.

"Reports of CSE in our region have long since been investigated by dedicated local multi-agency teams but our approach is now subject to structured governance by force leads and external bodies to ensure we are preparing, preventing, protecting, and pursuing in line with best practice and, crucially, without fear or favour.”

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council told GB News: "Over the last ten years, the Council has been committed to listening to the voice and lived experience of victims and survivors in order to drive forward improvements.

"Children’s Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham has been subject to 10 investigations, including the Jay Report by Professor Alexis Jay, Operation Stovewood, and several independent inquiries the Council has commissioned. The Council is continuing to work with the National Crime Agency and other partners to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.

"Anyone with information relating to criminal activity which may assist those investigations into child sex offences is urged to come forward and provide this to the NCA or South Yorkshire Police."