LONDON: Seven men who sexually abused two girls two decades ago received hefty jail sentences in the UK on Friday as a result of Britain’s biggest ever investigation into child abuse.
The men were imprisoned for between seven and 25 years after being convicted in June of offenses committed in Rotherham, in northern England, in the early 2000s.
The cases stem from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, a decade-long investigation into child sexual abuse that is the largest of its kind in UK history.
It began in 2014 following the publication of the Jay Report, which sent shockwaves around the country.
It found that at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
The report found that police and social services failed to put a stop to the abuse.
Some 36 people have been convicted so far as a result of the operation, according to the NCA, which investigates serious, organized and international crime.
The latest convictions came at the end of a nine-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
The trial heard how the victims, who were aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the offenses and were both in the care of social services, were groomed and often plied with alcohol or cannabis before being raped or assaulted.
They would often be collected by their abusers from the children’s homes where they lived at the time, the NCA said.
“These men were cruel and manipulative, grooming their victims and then exploiting them by subjecting them to the most harrowing abuse possible,” said NCA senior investigating officer Stuart Cobb.
Rotherham, a once prosperous industrial town that has suffered years of economic decline, experienced some of the worst anti-migrant violence during this summer’s riots in England when hundreds of people attacked a hotel housing asylum-seekers.
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Seven sentenced in UK’s biggest child abuse probe
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Seven sentenced in UK’s biggest child abuse probe
- The men were imprisoned for between seven and 25 years after being convicted in June
- The cases stem from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, a decade-long investigation into child sexual abuse that is the largest of its kind in UK history
Nordic region seeks deeper ties with Greenland after Trump threats
- Treaty of Nordic cooperation was created in 1962
- Update of treaty would be ‘historic’, Danish minister says
COPENHAGEN: Nordic government ministers will meet in Denmark on Wednesday to discuss elevating Greenland and two other autonomous territories to equal status in a regional forum, boosting cooperation after US President Donald Trump’s push to control the Arctic island.
Denmark and its European allies have rejected Trump’s insistence that the Nordic country must hand Greenland to the United States, launching talks last month between Copenhagen, Nuuk and Washington to resolve the diplomatic standoff.
Wednesday’s meeting will focus on upgrading the Helsinki Treaty, adopted in 1962 by Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, to give full rights to the Danish-ruled territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well as Finland’s Aland.
The autonomous regions have for decades sought equal status in the Nordic forum, but were kept out of meetings focusing on security and related matters such as the war in Ukraine, leading Greenland’s government in 2024 to boycott the format.
“An update of the Helsinki Treaty will be a historic step and a future-proofing of Nordic co-operation,” Denmark’s minister for Nordic cooperation, Morten Dahlin, said in a statement.
Greenland will actively participate in creating a commission to update the agreement, the island’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said in the statement.
“The process surrounding the Helsinki Treaty will be decisive in determining whether Greenland can be recognized as an equal partner in Nordic cooperation,” Motzfeldt said.
While opinion polls have indicated that a majority of the island’s 57,000 people hope to one day gain independence from Denmark, many warn against rushing it due to economic reliance on Copenhagen and becoming overly exposed to the United States.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen earlier this month said that if Greenlanders were forced to choose between the US and Denmark, they would choose Denmark.
Denmark and its European allies have rejected Trump’s insistence that the Nordic country must hand Greenland to the United States, launching talks last month between Copenhagen, Nuuk and Washington to resolve the diplomatic standoff.
Wednesday’s meeting will focus on upgrading the Helsinki Treaty, adopted in 1962 by Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, to give full rights to the Danish-ruled territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well as Finland’s Aland.
The autonomous regions have for decades sought equal status in the Nordic forum, but were kept out of meetings focusing on security and related matters such as the war in Ukraine, leading Greenland’s government in 2024 to boycott the format.
“An update of the Helsinki Treaty will be a historic step and a future-proofing of Nordic co-operation,” Denmark’s minister for Nordic cooperation, Morten Dahlin, said in a statement.
Greenland will actively participate in creating a commission to update the agreement, the island’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said in the statement.
“The process surrounding the Helsinki Treaty will be decisive in determining whether Greenland can be recognized as an equal partner in Nordic cooperation,” Motzfeldt said.
While opinion polls have indicated that a majority of the island’s 57,000 people hope to one day gain independence from Denmark, many warn against rushing it due to economic reliance on Copenhagen and becoming overly exposed to the United States.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen earlier this month said that if Greenlanders were forced to choose between the US and Denmark, they would choose Denmark.
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