By Millie Collins
Five survivors of the Rotherham grooming gangs allege they were sexually abused not only by predatory gangs but also by serving South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officers.
One survivor reports being raped from the age of 12 in the back of a marked police car, the officer threatening to hand her back to her abusers if she resisted.
These accounts form part of a new civil claim against South Yorkshire Police, overseen by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). They mark a chilling example of state power turned against its most vulnerable victims.
The scale of the Rotherham grooming scandal was first laid bare in Professor Alexis Jay’s 2014 report, which found at least 1,400 children, mostly girls, were systematically abused between 1997 and 2013, while authorities repeatedly turned a blind eye.
The report highlighted both institutional racism and class bias. Working class communities suffered appalling violence, as local councils and the police put political expediency and so-called cultural sensitivity above child protection. Further inquiries have condemned the cover-ups, yet the recent disclosures show that accountability still remains out of reach.
Police complicity
In addition to the five victims, a further 25 witnesses from grooming gang victims have said that the police either worked alongside the grooming gangs or simply ignored the abuse. The 30 accounts detail shocking allegations, revealing years of abuse against young girls by serving police officers, at the same time they were being exploited by grooming gangs.
One woman says as a child she would hear a police officer having sex with girls in exchange for drugs and money. Another woman says as a child she witnessed a police officer supplying illegal class A drugs to a grooming gang.
One victim, who was forced to have an illegal abortion by a grooming gang, stated that the very police officer who had been abusing her turned up to take her statement and then later ripped up her statement in front of her. No further action was taken.
Three women describe being beaten up by officers as children—one says this happened in a police cell. Most victims were in their teens, but some were as young as 11 years old.
South Yorkshire Police’s Major Crime Unit is currently investigating the involvement of its own officers under IOPC direction, following the arrest of three former SYP officers on suspicion of historic sexual offences, including rape and misconduct in public office.
Political leaders are now debating whether SYP should be stripped of this probe and replaced by an entirely independent force, amid widespread survivor distrust of the local force’s willingness to uncover the full truth. Solicitors representing the women warn that survivors ‘have no faith’ in SYP conducting a thorough investigation into crimes committed by their own staff.
These revelations expose more than individual misconduct. They reveal the rotten core of a police service that regards working class and racialised communities as disposable. The very officers sworn to protect children became their worst predators.
This is not an aberration but a feature of a capitalist state that defends property and power over people, funneling resources into surveillance and repression while abandoning social care and neighbourhood support.
The Rotherham scandal lays bare the reality that the primary function of state institutions is to be instruments of violence against the working class. It falls upon our class, in solidarity with survivors, to tear down the shield of secrecy, and demand an independent inquiry under the democratic control of communities, working class and women’s organisations, with the power to compel the authorities to give evidence.
