Response to Elon Musk: Most gang grooming done by whites, not Pakistanis, say UK police chiefs

LONDON: The vast majority of sexual grooming gang offences are carried out by white men, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has said after Twitter/X billionaire owner Elon Musk published several posts making false accusations against British Pakistani men.

New figures from the police database show that, where ethnicity data was available, 85 percent of “group-based” child abusers were white in the first three quarters of 2024. The same data for the whole of 2023 showed 83 percent of offenders were white.

Richard Fewkes, the director of the NPCC’s Hydrant programme targeting child sexual abuse, said there is no “significant issue” with “any particular ethnicity or setting”.

Mr Fewkes’ comments come after tech entrepreneur Elon Musk used his social media platform X to wage an online campaign against the UK government over the issue of grooming gangs, making hideously false allegations against Prime Minister Keir Starmer who had actually ensured that the grooming gang offenders are prosecuted and punished for their crimes when he was the head of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at the height of grooming gangs scandal involving Pakistanis, Asians and White men.

The billionaire has falsely accused the Prime Minister of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” over his record as a former director of public prosecutions, and called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “witch” and a “rape genocide apologist”.

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, Mr Fewkes said: “(The data) reflects what you would expect to see across the country in terms of ethnicity. Offences where grooming gangs are involved are predominantly white. There is not a significant issue here with any particular ethnicity or setting.”

The NPCC said the data, collated in this way for the first time, will now be used to inform the training of new officers and help chiefs at a “force-based level”.

“The data we collect now is a starting point,” Mr Fewkes said.

In recent days, the online and political debate has seen calls for an inquiry into child rape by Pakistani men, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage demanding a probe into “to what extent were gangs of Pakistani men raping young white girls” and several right-wing, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration figures making false and incorrect accusations against the whole Pakistani community.

The NPCC added: “Quarter four 2024 is not included in 2024 data as it is still being worked on.”

Mr Fewkes said the focus on the issue of grooming gangs in recent days had turned attention away from other areas of child sexual abuse, including that carried out within a family.

It’s important to address “all the threats from all races and ethnicities”, warned Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for child protection and abuse investigation.

The recent debates on Pakistani grooming gangs has “marginalised victims”, said Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs, the NPCC’s lead for child protection and abuse investigation.

The police have released their data in the wake of heated debate in the House of Commons over whether there should be a national statutory inquiry into Pakistani grooming gangs.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, who also attended the news conference, said: “The weaponisation of people’s trauma is reprehensible.

“Someone’s trauma should not be used to score political points, or as clickbait.”

Grooming gangs are behind two child sexual abuse offences reported to police every day, The Telegraph recently reported.

The analysis reported by the newspaper said there were 4,228 offences of “group-based” child sexual abuse, which made up 3.7% of the 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes, including those online, in 2023.