Your say on the child sexual exploitation scandal

What about the legal system?

THE Advertiser once again is looking at Rotherham Council and the police force. What about the Crown Prosecution Service, the Prime Minister and the Government, a legal system which has failed?

Those in it keep the system in a position to keep them nice and comfy. What about the effective remedy where the legal system tells Parliament what it means? Is the police force to prosecute itself? Is the council going to do the same? Parliament is not in charge of Government or the local council. What is the function of the Ombudsman and does it work? What is the function of a Member of Parliament? The word I have come across is due care and attention and due diligence. But who is responsible for what? The councillors are all responsible, not just Mr Stone.

The councillor is legally and financially in charge of the council, it has gone through the courts system. So the councillor loses all he has when the Crown Prosecution Service works. Councillors are not employees of the council, the law forbids it. The Chief Executive is legally responsible to the councillors for the council employees as are heads of departments. Only the employees of Rotherham Council are in charge, not elected.

The saying is if you put a donkey to be elected it would be a councillor. Why has the ombudsman not acted? Because they do not work, they rely on the chief executive, a council employee.

The council is to knock down Doncaster Gate Hospital;  it was according to records at a national level  bought by public subscription to be run as a trust, as was the Edward Dunn Memorial and the demolished swimming baths in Maltby. Public buildings bought by subscription are not council property or that of the NHS. It has gone through the courts, and the council lost.

T Appleyard, Acre Close, Maltby

Councillors must pay

I WISH to raise two points in relation to the shocking incidents of child sex abuse both historical and who knows, currently occurring, now being investigated.

Point one concerns the arrogance being shown by Shaun Wright, the Police and Crime Commissioner, who insists he will not leave his post until his term of office is over in 2016, thus collecting £170,000. He was aware of the problems and he stated in an interview recently, it wasn’t only him but a collective of officials who discussed the incidents when he was with the children’s services a few years ago (not a direct quote word for word but the gist of it) — is he sharpening his knife in readiness for when he is called to account?

He was elected by a pathetic attendance at the polls. If South Yorkshire residents are disapproving of his tenure and wish him to be removed from office, have we a course of action we can take for this to come to fruition like a formal petition which can be submitted to authorities concerned in order to achieve that goal?

Point two, it is expected that claims for compensation will be submitted on behalf of victims of the abuse over the last 14 years against the police and Rotherham Council, rightly so in my opinion. If this is the case, I personally feel that the compensation should NOT be paid out of council funds but from those councillors responsible for sweeping the reports under the carpet. A collective made up of a number of personnel involved within council committees at the time.

Why should council funds, paid into by members of the public through such as council tax, be used? Councillors and police will have to fund the compensation personally. I know this will cause them anxiety and stress, so what? Those children suffered much, much, worse, after all, it’s only money and not a life of mental health problems.

Terry Canadine

Questions must be answered

FIRSTLY, can I say that I have no affiliation to any particular political party, religion or creed.

Over recent years we have gone through an unprecedented period during which the corruption and deception in public life has been laid bare. Many financial and ethical frauds have been committed against the population.

Irrespective of the criminality that will now be investigated in Rotherham, the residents of the town need to be told the truth. The telling of the truth cannot and must not be delayed by or subject to any public enquiry that is likely to address what happened in Rotherham. Any enquiry is likely to report after the general election due in a matter of months from now. The telling of the truth will not change no matter when or where it is told and cannot prejudice any enquiry, the truth can only be given in evidence.

If those in public office do not tell the truth to the residents of Rotherham before the next national or local elections, then a further fraud will be committed against the trust of the people, the electorate. A Labour representative who knew of, and was accountable for, the situation in Rotherham has already been elected to a public position and refuses to step down.

There are many in public office, who have already left public office and public bodies who need to tell the truth to the residents of Rotherham. In my opinion, they need to answer three questions:

1. Who knew of the abuse in Rotherham?

2. What did they know?

3. What did they do?

The people and bodies that need to answer these questions are:

1. John Healey, Labour MP for Wentworth since 1997.

2. Denis MacShane, Labour MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012.

3. Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham from 2012 and, presumably the party candidate for 2015.

4. All RMBC councillors who served in the period.

5. All RMBC officers who served in the period (a Home Office researcher investigated this matter).

6. Jack Straw, Labour Home Secretary 1997 to 2001.

7. David Blunkett, Labour Home secretary 2001 to 2004.

8. Charles Clark, Labour Home Secretary 2004 to 2006.

9. John Reid, Labour Home Secretary 2006 to 2007.

10. Jacqui Smith, Labour Home Secretary 2007 to 2009.

11. Alan Johnson, Labour Home Secretary 2009 to 2010.

12. Theresa May, Coalition Home Secretary from 2010.

13. South Yorkshire Police.

14. Unison Metropolitan branch, Rotherham.

15. Teaching unions in Rotherham.

We know that many charitable bodies in Rotherham tried to address this issue with our elected representatives and were rejected.

Another question needs to be answered by RMBC. Of those named as culpable in the recent report and those within RMBC who were involved in this matter, how many have been allowed to retire or resign on preferential financial terms or with “gagging” clauses in termination agreements?

All the above need to answer to the people of Rotherham and the public in general as soon as possible and certainly before the next election.

B S Cunliffe, Middle Drive, Rotherham

Behaviour is disgraceful

AS an older citizen of the town I cannot remember a time when there was so much disgraceful behaviour by councillors and officials of the borough discovered every day. It just goes on and on. Disgrace on an industrial scale and a veritable Danse Macabre by so many skeletons tumbling out of filing cabinets and rising from under the carpets where they have been so long hidden.

Meanwhile the councillors and town officials hang on to their jobs and their pay. How thick skinned do you have to be and what brass neck is needed to hang on to your lucrative post in the face of the horror and contempt of the people you are supposed to serve? Four more councillors have now been suspended from the Labour Party — surely that must mean new elections as they can now no longer claim to represent the party for whom they were elected. After BBC Panorama on Monday night which exposed the multitude of cover ups over many years and deletion of documents and files, several people should now take responsibility for dereliction of duty.

Rotherham deserves better. We need a new council and a fresh approach to how it operates. The current system of cabinet decisions behind closed doors is too secretive and not good enough. The name of Rotherham has become almost a byword for sleaze; the good people of Rotherham want answers and better representation so that our children and grandchildren can once again be proud to say they are from Rotherham.

Name and address supplied

Sack them all

I FEEL that I am a decent person, never broken any law, and proud to be me. But I am so ashamed to be a lifelong resident of Rotherham that from now on, I will never admit to living here.

There has been one report after another about Rotherham and each one worse than the last.

1. The fish and chips through the fence saga at Rawmarsh.

2. The removal of children from foster parents, because they voted for the wrong political party.

3. The alleged incident involving the mayor.

4. The final straw the sex abuse of vulnerable young girls, and the sweeping under the carpet of the evidence.

What next, can it get any worse?

I don’t feel I am the only person who feels this way.

Sack the people responsible for this scandal.

Mrs Jenkins, Kimberworth

Names are needed

YET more revelations this week on Radio 4’s Today Programme and BBC TV regarding the grooming scandal in Rotherham. Unfortunately, as ever, and while the programmes reveal some horrific activities and implied serious failings on the part of the council, the Social Services and South Yorkshire Police, and now the Home Office, the public remain no wiser as too which individuals were involved in these various authorities. The blanket of silence it seems remains unmovable.

But the public have a right to know who the so called ‘people in senior positions’ were, who reports were given to and who sat on the various committees supposedly looking into the findings. Some names are in the public domain but many it would seem are yet to come out. To the general public however the whole scene is very confused having covered such a long time, and a time line setting out clearly the roles and names of senior people in each of the various agencies would help everyone understand the situation much better.

For example Roger Stone has resigned as the leader of the council, but unbelievably not as a councillor, but who was/were his deputies over the period and what was their role, and who sat in his cabinet? Shaun Wright’s role seems clear to everyone but himself, but did he work alone? And was it simply police officers themselves who decided not to pursue matters or was there pressure from above and if so from who? Did it go as high as Meredith Hughes, who also applied for Shaun Wright’s job? Did the CPS have a role to play?

Finally who in the Home Office was involved, Mr Blunkett was in charge I believe?

So come on Rotherham Advertiser, this is your town, do everyone a favour by setting out some of the details, names, warts and all, and help everyone, in the absence of any action being taken elsewhere, decide for themselves where the blame lies. 

Name and address supplied

Opening borders has failed

I WAS born in Rotherham, went to school in Rotherham, worked and still live in Rotherham but never have I felt so ashamed.

Not only do our council knock down our heritage, they turn their back on our children. The police and council did nothing to stop the known abuse of our vulnerable children for fear of upsetting the Pakistani community. I bet their actions would have been different if the abuse had been carried out by a white group on Asian girls.

All are to blame for the lack of action along with taxi owners and drivers who must have been aware of the abuse while they delivered the victims to the abusers. We see an ex-council leader on TV denying all knowledge and stating parents are partly to blame. Parents of whom? The vulnerable who were mainly in care homes, or the parents of the sick perverts who carried out the abuse.

Tony Blair said we should open our borders to all, they will enrich our society, they are certainly not doing that.

All involved should be punished, and if in office should be dismissed.

Rotherham resident, who is deeply ashamed of living in this town

Maybe chief constables could change places

CONGRATULATIONS to South Yorkshire Police force, who knew for years that our town’s vulnerable children were being groomed and abused by mainly Asian paedophiles. They, like Dodger Stone and his Labour Council, (in the interests of harmony or to garner votes if a councillor) ignored, derided and discredited those who spoke up and chose to do nothing about it.

Then less than a week later I read about Hampshire police, Interpol and police forces in Spain and France hunting down two parents who removed their child from a UK hospital to go and find preferred treatment for their terminally ill son. This hunt has led to a separation of parents from the sick child, who was left alone in a hospital in a foreign country. No doubt they did what they did out of desperation and love for their son.

A sad state of policing affairs; my recommendation is that South Yorkshire’s woefully negligent Chief Constable trade places with Hampshire’s Chief Constable.

Maybe then, common sense would have prevailed.

Derek Stocks