LONDON: Modern slavery and human trafficking is a much bigger problem in Britain than previously thought, the National Crime Agency warned.
The revelation comes amid a public outcry over another major sex abuse ring in the country.
The conviction of a gang of 18 men in the northern city of Newcastle for sexually abusing vulnerable teenage girls has focused attention on the communities where such attacks have taken place.
The gang, consisting mostly of South Asian men, raped or assaulted the victims — 13 white girls and women, aged from 15 to their early 20s — after drugging them or threatening them with violence at especially-convened parties — often referred to as “sessions” — where they were supplied with drugs and alcohol. Some girls were abused while asleep.
The offenders were found guilty following four trials, the last of which concluded on Tuesday.
It was the latest shocking grooming case to hit the country following similar high-profile scandal in the northern town of Rotherham that took place between 1997 and 2013.
Labour MP Sarah Champion said people had become more afraid to be called a racist than being wrong about child sexual abuse
Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, who is the shadow minister for women and equalities, called for a government commission into the crimes.
But some experts also warned that the shocking scandal could lead to a rise in hate crime against Muslim and south Asian communities.
Speaking to Arab News, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, founder of Tell MAMA, a body that records anti-Muslim hate crime said that one of the direct consequences of such a horrific story is a spike in anti-Muslim attacks.
“We know from Rotherham and the grooming scandals that affected so many young girls, that the wider impacts of such activities are long term,” Mughal told Arab News.
“The serious psychological and physical damage they cause to the girls who are abused, the impacts on the families of the girls and abuse against innocent people of Pakistani heritage who are then targeted for hatred and on occasion, violence, shows that the impacts are wide and deep.
“Grooming affects whole communities and fractures race and cultural relations across our country and has also been a driver for extreme groups who use such poisonous events to radicalize young minds against others.”
That view was echoed by Neil Chakraborti, professor of Criminology and director of the Center for Hate Studies at the University of Leicester. Chakraborti said that tension and emotion were understandable following such a scandal but that communities had to fight against the backlash and come together.
“We know from previous that there is a rise in hate crime,” he told Arab News.
“Many feel a backlash from awful incidents like this and that was the case with similar shocking grooming cases and scandals.
“I understand emotions are high and tempers fray, it was similar after the Manchester bombing.
“But while that was clearly a different set of circumstances to the grooming scandal, we can learn from its aftermath, when the community came together and had a dialogue and honest debate about the failings. People and communities need to talk to one another and focused on community cohesion.”
Sexual exploitation is the most common form of modern slavery reported in the UK according to the NCA.
The NCA’s vulnerabilities Director Will Kerr said that trafficking into modern slavery was now so widespread that ordinary people would be coming into contact with victims every day without knowing it.
Human trafficking worse than thought in UK, says new report
Human trafficking worse than thought in UK, says new report
Bill Clinton says he ‘did nothing wrong’ with Epstein as he faces grilling over their relationship
- “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president said
- The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress
WASHINGTON: Former President Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse as he faced hours of grilling from lawmakers over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president said in an opening statement he shared on social media at the outset of the deposition.
The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It came a day after Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Bill Clinton has also not been accused of any wrongdoing. Yet lawmakers are grappling with what accountability in the United States looks like at a time when men around the world have been toppled from their high-powered posts for maintaining their connections with Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
“Men — and women for that matter — of great power and great wealth from all across the world have been able to get away with a lot of heinous crimes and they haven’t been held accountable and they have not even had to answer questions,” said Republican Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, before the deposition began Friday.
Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him. But Bill Clinton will have to answer questions on a well-documented relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, even if it was from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Bill Clinton in his opening statement said that he would likely often tell the committee that he did not recall the specifics of events from more than 20 years ago. But he also expressed certainty that he had not witnessed signs of Epstein’s abuse.
During a break after two hours of questioning, Democratic lawmakers said that Bill Clinton had tried to answer every question and had not invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Still, Republicans were relishing the opportunity to scrutinize the former Democratic president under oath.
“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions,” Comer said.
Republicans finally get a chance to question Bill Clinton
Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.
Those calls reached a fever pitch late last year when several photos of the former president surfaced in the Department of Justice’s first release of case files on Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 but maintains she’s innocent. Bill Clinton was photographed on a plane seated alongside a woman, whose face is redacted, with his arm around her. Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in a pool with another person whose face was redacted.
Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later made several international trips together for their humanitarian work. Comer claimed the committee has collected evidence that Epstein visited the White House 17 times and that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s airplane 27 times.
Democratic lawmakers said they also posed tough questions to Bill Clinton about his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Bill Clinton said in his opening statement. “And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”
Comer pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary Clinton had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.
Bill Clinton went after Comer for calling his wife before the committee, telling him that “including her was simply not right.”
The committee was working to quickly publish a transcript and video recording of her deposition.
Has a precedent been set?
Democrats, who have supported the push to get answers from Bill Clinton, are arguing that it sets a precedent that should also apply to President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein.
“I think that President Trump needs to man up, get in front of this committee and answer the questions and stop calling this investigation a hoax,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, on Friday.
Comer has pushed back on that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.
Trump on Friday expressed remorse at Bill Clinton being forced to testify. “I like Bill Clinton, and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” he told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Democrats are also calling for the resignation of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick was a longtime neighbor of Epstein in New York City but said on a podcast that he severed ties with Epstein following a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
The public release of case files showed that Lutnick actually had two engagements with Epstein years later. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home, and in 2012 his family had lunch with Epstein on his private island.
“He should be removed from office and at a minimum should come before the committee,” Garcia said of Lutnick.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace questioned Hillary Clinton about Lutnick’s relationship to Epstein during the deposition on Thursday. On Friday morning, Mace joined in calling for the commerce secretary to come before the committee.
“I believe we will have the votes to subpoena him,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said.
