The truth about the grooming scandal - from the journalist who broke it
| Updated:
The Times reporter Andrew Norfolk, who exposed the grooming gangs scandal in 2011, speaks to The News Agents to “set the record straight” on whether there was a cover up, Keir Starmer’s real impact in the role as CPP and Elon Musk’s spread of misinformation.
Listen to this article
Read time: 5 minutes
In brief:
- Andrew Norfolk, the reporter who broke the story of the grooming gangs scandal in 2011, has accused Elon Musk of distorting the truth about the historical cases involving sexual abuse of young girls in Rotherham and other UK cities.
- While there was a cover-up at the local level by police and social services, Norfolk states there was no institutional cover-up by the UK government and that significant changes were made after the scandal broke, including reforms implemented by Keir Starmer as Director of Public Prosecutions.
- Norfolk opposes calls for a new national inquiry, and criticises politicians who are only speaking up now due to Musk's involvement.
What’s the story?
Elon Musk’s attacks about the historical grooming gangs scandal are an “utter distortion of the truth”, Andrew Norfolk, The Times reporter who broke the story 14 years ago, has said.
The grooming gangs scandal has been dominating headlines in recent days after Elon Musk has relentlessly attacked the UK government on X for not opening a new inquiry into the cases.
Speaking to The News Agents, Norfolk said he’s been “taken aback by the storm that has blown up, triggered by comments by Elon Musk” and wants to “set the record straight”, particularly on attacks Musk has made on the mainstream media and the Prime Minister.
In January 2011 the investigative reporter published a story exposing the sexual abuse of mostly young white girls, by mostly middle-aged men of Pakistani origin, in Rotherham. His work went on to uncover the failure of public institutions to protect the girls who were groomed and abused in several northern cities.
The exposé gained national attention and led to a public inquiry in 2014 by Professor Alexis Jay, which found that at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
Similar cases were later also discovered in other towns and a new, national inquiry, also led by Jay, was published in 2022.
Andrew Norfolk condemns the reuse of the abuse for political gain.
Why is Elon Musk involved?
When the story broke, it garnered the attention of far-right groups, including Nick Griffin’s British National Party (BNP) and Tommy Robinson’s English Defence League (EDL), who hi-jacked the story in an attempt to politicise the shocking revelations.
“Immediately the far right leapt on that story,” Norfolk remembers.
Far-right groups, he says, see the story in its simplest form; “‘innocent white girls and evil dark-skinned men’ and the far right, with no interest whatsoever in helping the situation, were wanting to exploit it.”
Now, over a decade later, Elon Musk, a key part of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team, is echoing the response of far-right groups back then.
The billionaire Tesla and Space X founder has called for Tommy Robinson, who has made a documentary on the grooming gangs, to be released from prison. He is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court in an unrelated case.
“Musk presents Tommy Robinson as a great hero, as a great defender of young women. Tommy Robinson nearly wrecked one of these criminal trials through his irresponsible careless behavior.”
Musk’s attacks on the UK government have included calling Jess Phillips, the current secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, a "rape genocide apologist" and saying that Keir Starmer is “complicit in the rape of Britain” and should be in prison.
“I don't think Elon Musk and the concept of truth really are very familiar with each other,” Norfolk says.
How did Keir Starmer respond to the grooming gangs scandal in his role as CPP?
Was there a cover up?
“What is Keir Starmer supposed to have covered up? I don't understand?" Norfolk says.
The reporter remembers working with Keir Starmer, who was the Director of Public Prosecutions when the story broke.
He says he genuinely believes that Starmer “did his best to affect change for the better”.
“He completely changed the rules. His decision led to a massive increase in the number of successful prosecutions across the country.
“In a similar way, rules for judicial appointments for complex cases involving multiple defendants were changed. A special panel of judges was introduced.”
“For all the easy, cheap nonsense that's been peddled these last few days, significant changes were made.
“And for all the hatred of the mainstream media that is being so cheaply and easily thrown about, it was the mainstream media that kept writing about this, until eventually, Rotherham council was shamed into ordering the independent inquiry by Alexis Jay.”
The only cover up, Norfolk believes, was not at a “national institutional level,” but was “on the ground” with social services, police forces and local offices failing to take appropriate actions.
Norfolk remembers an instance where a grandfather called him up and told of how his 13-year-old granddaughter was found by police half-naked, drunk, in the company of several adult Pakistani men. The men were left in the house while his granddaughter was arrested, put in a cell, and convicted of being drunk and disorderly.
“South Yorkshire Police, and that local authority, had known for years what was happening. They had the names of the perpetrators. They knew addresses the people were being taken to and they had done nothing.
“There was a cover up. And there was an inquiry by Alexis Jay which revealed that.”
Andrew Norfolk: 'What was Keir Starmer supposed to have covered up?'
Should there be another national inquiry?
Norfolk believes there is no need for a new national inquiry, but he does think that “despite the sensitivity” work needs to be done to understand why a very small subsection of the British Pakistani community are involved in this crime pattern.
“It's important to say this, overwhelmingly, the vast majority of child sexual abuse in this country is carried out by white men.”
But, at the time of the scandal, “Rotherham Pakistani population was less than 4% of Rotherham's overall population,” he says.
“To this day, the most frustrating thing for me is that nobody has done the official research to understand why that brain pattern put down such deep roots.”
But Musk’s platform on X has been somewhat effective for his cause, with Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch also suddenly calling for a new inquiry.
“Why are they outraged now?” Norfolk asks of the politicians speaking up.
“They're outraged now that Elon Musk has been shouting about it without knowing what he's talking about.”
While Norfolk accepts we still have a very “far from perfect system,” he points to David Cameron, who was Prime Minister at the time, immediately calling for the inquiry after the story broke.
He recalls Cameron and other cabinet ministers at the time holding a summit with Rotherham survivors, and afterwards “significant changes” were made.
“These girls have been victims so terribly for so many years, being exploited all over again and for now politicians to jump on the bandwagon when they've been silent for so many years, just strikes me as a bit shameful.”
Listen to the full interview on The News Agents.
