Asian girls in Rotherham threatened with rape to 'even things up'
Categories: Latest News
Thursday November 27 2014
Rotherham’s local paper, The Star, reports on frustrations expressed by the local MP over the Government’s response to local petitions for the banning of far right demonstrations in the city.
After a series of local protests which have cost the city considerable amounts in the form of policing costs and loss of local business, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said she was disappointed with the response from the Home Secretary, Theresa May, and Business Secretary, Vince Cable to her call for more policing powers to prevent marches and for support for local businesses affected by the disruption to trade.
Talking to the local paper, Ms Champion said: “I am angry that the Government aren’t taking these concerns on board. Small business owners are seriously affected by the repeated targeting of our town by the EDL.
“Traders are telling me that they are on the verge of going out of business, because they haven’t been able to recover lost earnings. This is a serious issue and not one that the government should ignore.”
BBC News further reports that Champion has raised the issue of Asian girls in Rotherham being targeted by far right extremists with retaliatory threats of rape levelled at them. Champion, speaking on a BBC programme about the report by Professor Alexis Jay into child sex exploitation in the city, said that young Asian girls have been “too scared to go into town for the past three months because when they do, they get threatened”.
She added that threats of rape had been made against Asian girls as a way to “even things up”.
Politicians and police in other parts of the UK have echoed similar concerns over greater police powers to prevent demonstrations which put a strain on police budgets and which divide local communities.