UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post
IF there was one crumb of comfort to be taken from the appalling litany of abuse committed by disgraced presenters Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall it was that it starkly underlined the threat posed by prolific child sex offenders, even those who operated in the full glare of publicity.
Indeed, such are the concerns arising from the scandalous way in which so many apparently turned a blind eye to their actions that Keir Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions, has called for a mandatory reporting law which would make it a criminal offence for teachers and other professionals to fail to act over suspicions that a youngster was being targeted in such a way.
Yet there is a nagging sense that the authorities are not taking the scourge of child abuse as seriously as they should. The Government says it has no plans to introduce mandatory reporting legislation, while the response of police forces in Yorkshire has been the subject of no little controversy.
West Yorkshire Police’s investigation into its dealings with Savile, published in May, was roundly criticised for failing to appear sufficiently independent.
Now a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary says that children in South Yorkshire are “not always being adequately protected” from sexual grooming because of the inconsistent approach to tackling the problem taken by the county’s police force.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.