London – UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Thursday that a number of new central government-backed local investigations would be launched into years-old allegations of child grooming gangs, weeks after that Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings in the handling of business. crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes took place ten years ago, when Starmer was the country’s top prosecutor.
Musk’s tweets targeted Starmer personallysuggesting that he should be in prison and that “America should free the British people from their tyrannical government”, putting the crimes back into the political debate in Britain.
Starmer defended his record and denounced criticism as politically motivated.
“Those who spread lies and disinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in the victims. They are interested in themselves,” Starmer told reporters after Elon Musk’s tweets earlier this month, without mentioning the tech mogul and close collaborator of Donald Trump by name.
In 2012, a newspaper article about grooming led to a major government investigation, which two years later revealed that at least 1,400 children had been subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013. Similar exploitation has been discovered in other cities. , leading to a national investigation.
The prosecution, led by Starmer between 2008 and 2013, was criticized in the report for not pressing charges in Rochdale because it considered a victim “unreliable” following an investigation between 2008 and 2009. This decision was later overturned by a Starmer prosecutor. named person.
“Mr Starmer worked to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions,” says a 2013 Home Affairs Committee report .
In response to Musk’s tweets and the political pressure they generated, Starmer vigorously defended his record.
“I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang in this particular case. … it was the first of its kind. We changed, or I changed, the whole approach to prosecution, because I wanted to challenge, and I have challenged, the myths and stereotypes that prevented these victims from being heard,” Starmer said. “When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases prosecuted on record.”
Starmer initially said further investigations into grooming gangs could delay the fight against child abuse.
“We will be led by the victims, and what the victims have told us is that they do not want to see another national inquiry,” Starmers’ spokesperson told reporters a week ago.
