Call for ex-council leader Roger Stone to lose OBE

One Rotherham survivor calling for Mr Stone (pictured), who led the council during the years hundreds of children were groomed and sexually abused — to have the honour awarded for services to local Government revoked, calling him “a facilitator of abuse”.

The survivor, known as Elizabeth, said: “Under Roger Stone’s watch, many children were let down.

“I feel like Roger Stone facilitated that abuse by letting it happen — giving perpetrators power, taking our voice away and letting us be abused.”

She added: “If he was to keep the title, it would just be another insult, like Shaun Wright (the former children’s services spokesman who was cleared of perjury by the police watchdog).

“If it was to be revoked it would be some recognition about what’s actually happened under his watch — that’s all we want.”

Elizabeth has previously campaigned for a change in the law which means council officials who have left their posts cannot be held legally accountable for misconduct.

A group of around 40 people, including survivors and their families, wrote to the Cabinet Office several years ago calling for the forfeiture of Mr Stone’s honour — which was awarded in 2009.

Mr Stone resigned and left the council in the wake of the Jay Report, which revealed 1,400 children had been abused in the town between 1997 and 2013.

A report by Louise Casey, which said the borough council was “not fit for purpose”, labelled Mr Stone a “bully”.

Jayne Senior, CSE whistleblower and chief executive of Swinton Lock, wrote to the Cabinet Office on behalf of a group of survivors who access the outreach centre.

Mrs Senior, who is also a borough councillor, said: “Survivors were just fed-up that nobody was taking any responsibility for anything that had happened historically.”

This week, Mrs Senior contacted the Cabinet Office again — more than a year after being told her comments were being “carefully considered” — for an update on her submission. 

She said the delay was “annoying” and “another slap in the face”.

Mrs Senior said: “If it was forfeited, it would send a message out there that if you are in a position of power you can’t keep ignoring things because that’s the easiest thing to do.”

Mrs Senior said as leader of the council Mr Stone had received cabinet papers “and knew what was happening”.

She added: “Why did he not ask some probing questions?

“You look at the reports he was getting and what was happening and going on behind-the-scenes — what were the police doing with the intelligence?

“His role was to scrutinise and ask questions — we will never know if he asked those questions.”

In March 2015, Mr Stone was asked by the home affairs select committee if he would return his OBE because of his part in failing to deal with child abuse in the town.

Mr Stone repeatedly said “no” and added: “I don’t accept a number of the things that you’ve accused me of. 

“At the end of the day it’s not just about the politics of Rotherham.”

Recommendations to remove honours are considered by the forfeiture committee and require the approval of The Queen. 

Honours can be taken away from people who have brought the honours system into disrepute. 

Examples include being found guilty of a criminal offence or being struck off by a relevant body but guidelines state the “committee is not restricted to these two criteria”.