Some women who were exploited by grooming gangs in Rotherham during their childhood say they were also abused by police officers in the town at that time,
According to reports, one says she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officer in a marked police car. He would threaten to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply, she says.
“In a world where you were being abused so much, being raped once by a police officer was a lot easier than multiple rapes by the gang, and I think he knew that,” she tells the BBC.
Written accounts were reviewed from those women, along with testimony from 25 other victims of grooming gangs, and some of these women allege that corrupt police officers either collaborated with the gangs or failed to take action against child sexual exploitation.
According to the landmark Jay Report published in 2014, at least 1,400 girls in Rotherham were abused between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of men, who were predominantly identified by victims as being of Pakistani heritage.
South Yorkshire Police takes up Rotherham police officer scandal
A new criminal investigation into the involvement of police officers in the Rotherham grooming scandal is now being conducted by South Yorkshire Police’s major crime unit, under the oversight of the police watchdog.
Professor Alexis Jay, who led the independent inquiry into the abuse in Rotherham, told the BBC she is shocked that South Yorkshire Police is investigating its former officers. She believes the criminal investigation should be handed over to another police force or an independent body.
In response, Assistant Chief Constable Hayley Barnett of South Yorkshire Police said: “We understand how difficult it must be for a victim or survivor, especially someone who was so severely let down in the past, to place their trust in today’s South Yorkshire Police.”
She added, however, that victims and survivors are at the heart of the investigation, with every action being taken in their best interests. The women’s accounts, reviewed by the BBC, have been redacted to protect their identities. These statements were gathered by Switalskis.
Solicitors, a specialist child abuse law firm, as part of efforts to pursue a separate civil claim against South Yorkshire Police and seek compensation for alleged victims.
One of the women, Willow – not her real name – says she was sexually abused by hundreds of men over five years after first being targeted, as an 11-year-old in 1997, by a grooming gang.
Two police officers also sexually abused her, she says. Over three years, one of the SYP officers would repeatedly track her down and pick her up in a police car in Rotherham town centre, she says.
“He knew where we used to hang out, he would request either oral sex or rape us in the back of the police car,” she tells the BBC.
If she tried to refuse his requests, he would even contact the grooming gang directly to threaten her. Willow also alleges that both officers who abused her, including PC Ali, were involved in drug supply.
Since December 2024, three former officers have been arrested on suspicion of historic sexual offences, including attempted rape, indecent assault, and misconduct in public office.
The alleged crimes occurred between 1995 and 2004 while the officers were serving as PCs. None of them has been charged.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson told the BBC that the complaints the force received about Hassan Ali were not related to drugs but involved “allegations of persistently asking a victim on a date, sharing information, and failing to safeguard victims.”
Former IOPC investigator Garry Harper says he was aware of allegations against PC Ali and that the officer’s connections to organised crime groups were discussed within the IOPC during Operation Linden.
“There were several complaints that he had supplied and used drugs, as well as sexually abused some of the survivors,” Harper said. The IOPC told the BBC it had no record of any allegations against PC Ali being made by “any of the victim-survivors involved in Operation Linden.”
It also said it had investigated a third-party report claiming that a former officer had a sexual relationship with “two young vulnerable females.” However, when these individuals were interviewed as adults, they denied that the relationship took place.
The eight-year investigation was described by Mr. Harper as an abject failure from beginning to end,” adding that South Yorkshire Police “managed to avoid almost any accountability.”
The watchdog upheld 43 complaints against individual officers, with eight facing misconduct charges and six facing gross misconduct charges. However, no officers lost their jobs or faced criminal prosecution.
South Yorkshire Police told the BBC that none of the former officers currently under investigation had any allegations of rape made against them at the time they retired.
