Elon Musk has reopened the national scandal surrounding gangs of men who groomed, assaulted and raped girls across England.
In dozens of messages posted on his X platform over the past week, they ranged from including extracts from court transcripts to describing Sir Keir Starmer as “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
They are acting The last intervention By the tech billionaire, who will serve in the next Donald Trump administration, In United Kingdom affairs.
What was the scandal?
It is unclear what Musk is basing his claim on. 2014 Jay Report In the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham, led by Professor Alexis Jay, it is conservatively estimated that 1,400 children were targeted between 1997 and 2013. Some of them were as young as 11 years old. A similar story has been repeated in towns and cities across the United States. nation.
While the first trials for street grooming began in 2010, the number of known victims has numbered in the thousands.
Was there an official cover-up?
Evidence of gangs operating in different towns and cities has emerged slowly – often through court cases and then investigations – and the pattern is often similar.
Local police forces and social services have repeatedly been criticized for failing victims, by not prioritizing such crimes, either by refusing to believe children, or by blaming them.
Vulnerable children are believed to have brought their plight upon themselves, having been showered with gifts and attention by perpetrators.
As a result, many cases were not investigated or were not referred to the Public Prosecution.
in Rochdaletwo whistleblowers – former detective Maggie Oliver and former social worker Sarah Rowbotham – repeatedly warned that agencies turned a blind eye to what was happening despite them raising the alarm.
In cases involving gangs of British-Pakistani men, agencies have also been criticized for failing to act due to concerns about appearing racist, including in Rotherham.
An independent investigation into grooming in Oldham, Greater Manchester, Released in 2022, It looked specifically at allegations of a coordinated “cover-up.”
While it found this claim to be unfounded, it identified multiple protection failures by local agencies.
What was Starmer's role?
Starmer ran prosecutors between 2008 and 2013, when the scandal first broke.
“Starmer must go and face charges of complicity in the worst mass murder in British history,” Musk wrote on Channel X this week.
Allegations that Starmer bears some responsibility for failures to bring grooming gangs to justice stem, in particular, from a case in 2009 when the decision was made not to prosecute the alleged perpetrators in Rochdale. Lawyers believe that the victim will not be reliable or credible.
Starmer had been DPP for nine months when the decision was made. There is no evidence to suggest that he was aware of the details of the case at that time.
In 2011, Nazir Afzal, the new Attorney-General for North West England at the time, overturned the 2009 decision and nine men were eventually convicted.
“The only way we can bring this case is to admit that we failed these victims when they first filed a complaint in 2008,” Afzal said afterward.
He added: “Keir was 100% behind the decision to publicly admit that we made mistakes in the past.”
He later added: “Keir left in 2013, after the CPS went from being poor at handling sexual assault cases to having the highest conviction rate in our history. “This would not have been possible without the support, resources and protection that Kerr gave me, at a time when it would have been easier to give up.”
Starmer in 2013 reviewed CPS procedures and guidelines on how prosecutors handle grooming cases in a bid to ensure young victims are not dismissed in the future because of stereotypes he believes undermine their credibility.
Should a government-led national inquiry be held?
Since the first cases of street grooming gangs began to be prosecuted 15 years ago, there have been several independent local investigations into how they were able to operate under the noses of the authorities, including in Rochdale, Manchester, Rotherham and Telford.
Last week it emerged that Jess Phillips, the UK's Minister for Protection and Violence against Women and Girls, rejected a request by Oldham Council for a national investigation into grooming gangs in the city. She said the council should hold a local investigation instead, as was done in Rotherham and Telford.
Nationally, Independent investigation into child sexual abuselaunched in 2015, included an in-depth examination of how local agencies respond to such criminal networks.
To date, none of its recommendations have been implemented.
Health Minister Wes Streeting said on Sunday the government was not holding a national inquiry “because there is already a national inquiry”, adding that “the victims today, tomorrow and next week deserve the full implementation of….” . . Recommendations.
Reports from the Inspectorate of Police were also conclusive as to how individual forces dealt with the issue.
“The idea that national investigations are always better is a moot one,” said Ella Cockbin, associate professor of criminology at University College London, pointing to the fact that a government-commissioned national investigation costing more than £180 million has already taken place.
Why is Tommy Robinson in prison?
Along with posts about the grooming scandal, Musk has repeatedly brought up Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned right-wing activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
“Why is Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement because he told the truth?” “He should be released and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell,” Musk wrote on X on Thursday, adding that he “should be released.”
The caption indicates that Robinson is believed to have been imprisoned for his public statements about grooming gangs.
Robinson, who has other criminal convictions, was jailed late last year after pleading contempt of court for repeating defamatory and false allegations against a Syrian refugee in a documentary.
In an interview over the weekend, UK reform leader Nigel Farage said he would explain to Musk that Robinson was in prison because he lied in court rather than exposing criminal gangs.
In response, Musk wrote on X on Sunday morning: “I know he's in jail for contempt of court…but there's no justification for such a long prison sentence or solitary confinement!”
