From the late s until , group-based child sexual exploitation affected an estimated 1, girls, commonly from care home backgrounds, in the town of Rotherham , South Yorkshire, England. Between and , girls were abused by "grooming gangs" of predominantly British-Pakistani men. Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early s, when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. The first group conviction took place in , when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12β Following these reports, alongside the trial of the Rochdale child sex abuse ring , the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee conducted hearings and published its recommendations in six reports.
The pregnancies, miscarriages, and terminations which resulted caused further trauma to the victims. Following the Jay report, Rotherham Council's chief executive, its director of children's services, as well as the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire Police all resigned. Rotherham is the largest town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, with a population of , in the census.
Until Sarah Champion was elected in , it had never had a female MP. In , the Department for Education began using the term child sexual exploitation CSE to replace the term child prostitution , which implied consent. CSE is a form of child sexual abuse in which children are offered somethingβmonetary or otherwiseβfor sexual activity, with violence and intimidation common.
The adult then enters into a "relationship" with the target, but often the girl is used for sex by a larger group, in some cases leading to group rape. Trafficking is common, with the child "sold" to other groups. According to one victim, targets are preferably ; the group loses interest as the child ages and expects the child to supply other, younger children. From the early s, several managers of local children's homes set up the "taxi driver group" to investigate reports that taxis driven by Pakistani men were arriving at care homes to take the children away.
The police reportedly declined to act. Around , Senior began to find evidence of a localised grooming network. Most Risky Business clients had previously come from Sheffield, which had a red-light district ; now the girls were younger and came from Rotherham.
