Child sex victims 'not getting help they need', says report

CHILD sex abuse victims are missing out on protection because of the idea that Asian men are preying on young white girls, says a new report.

A study for the office of the Children’s Commissioner for England says that thousands of children are being sexually exploited by gangs every year.

But the deputy children’s commissioner, Sue Berelowitz, says the failure of protection agencies to recognise that the ‘model’ of Asians grooming young white girls for sex was just one of a number of such models meant many victims were left at the mercy of abusers.

Ms Berelowitz, said the evidence showed that abusers came ‘from all ethnic groups and so do their victims, contrary to what some may wish to believe’.

“The failure of agencies to recognise this means that too many child victims are not getting the protection and support they so desperately need," Ms Berelowitz said.

The report comes after nine Asians were jailed for sexually exploiting young girls in Rochdale and the Rotherham sex grooming scandal in which the council admitted that some victims had been let-down after revelations of widespread grooming of teenage girls in the town.

The report is the biggest survey of child sex abuse in England and reveals that there were 2,409 victims identified nationally in the 14 months to October 2011.

The report also identifies 16,500 children who were at "high risk of sexual exploitation" in 2010-11.

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