Dispatches viewers want the Government to tackle the growing trend of sexual exploitation within the Asian community.
South West Londoners are urging the Government to break their silence on street grooming, which sees hundreds of young girls being sexually exploited by gangs of boys.
Earlier this month Channel 4 aired a documentary investigating the reality of ‘on street grooming’.
It highlighted the growing trend developing in the Asian community, with Pakistani boys targeting white girls for gang rape.
Farah Ahmad, a South-West London Pakistani, said: “Grooming in any means is wrong whether it be Pakistani or any other race doing it – it needs to be tackled.
“Gang culture and age should be looked at and targets should also be questioned to resolve the issue.”
Dispatches episode ‘Britain’s Sex Gangs’ tackles Parliament and the police’s growing ‘culture of silence’, for fear of being branded racist.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre report, published in June 2011, found 28 per cent of offenders to be Asian, in the cases where ethnic groups were recorded.
Peter Davies, Chief Executive of CEOP, says in the documentary: “I am not being cautious on the race issue what I’m trying to do make sure people don’t arrive at a false impression of who they’re at risk from.
“There is no doubt that some of the cases do involve large groups of males in one particular ethnicity. If people know it’s in their community, they should do something about it.”
The documentary suggested that the Government and police are hesitant to address specific ethnic groups.
This is because the English Defence League (EDL) divert the focus of gang grooming court cases from the brutality of the crime to the ethnic background of the offenders.
Claire Edmondson, a South-West London psychology graduate, said: “There is a small group of that particular ethnicity that are behaving in a certain way, but that doesn’t mean people should judge everyone who is British Pakistani and have a negative view of them.
“The EDL are being opportunists to capitalise on the ethnicity of the gangs but the problem can’t be ignored because of fear of it being labelled racist.”
A South-West London graduate, who wishes to remain anonymous, told SW Londoner that while studying at University he knew a number of Asian students involved in gang grooming, predominately targeting white females.
He said: “I don’t want to be labelled the snake but it still made me feel sick knowing what they were doing to innocent girls.
“They told me it’s because they couldn’t have sex before marriage with Asian girls as the community was so tight-knit – but they wanted to have sex and white girls were easier to target.”
Gang grooming is a vicious crime where young girls, as young as 11, are tricked into relationships.
The girls are then introduced to a group of older men who often exploit them to countless attacks of gang rape.
In November 2010 the most prolific case of gang grooming saw nine Derby men, eight of who were Asian, convicted of calculative grooming and sexually abusing teenage girls ranging from the ages of 12-18.
Noorislam Muhammed, a British-Pakistani, said: “The government should step in. The issue of grooming should not be allowed in any community as it can grow behind closed doors if it is not tackled head on.”
For more information about Britain’s Sex Gangs visit http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od
If you have been affected by this news story visit http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/britains-sex-gangs-help-and-support
