A report by the Home Affairs Select Committee into files which went missing from a researcher’s office during the Rotherham child abuse scandal has called for an urgent investigation into how the files went missing.
BBC News reports that a researcher working for the Home Office in Rotherham between 2000 and 2002 arrived at work and found some of her files relating to child sex exploitation in Rotherham had gone missing from her office.
She had been working on a Home-Office funded pilot project to tackle prostitution and uncovered some of the evidence about child sex exploitation taking place in Rotherham.
Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz MP, said:
“The proliferation of revelations about files which can no longer be located gives rise to public suspicion of a deliberate cover-up.
“The only way to address these concerns is with a full, transparent and urgent investigation.”
The researcher had submitted a report to the Home Office in April 2002 in which she criticised the “indifferent” attitude of senior managers at agencies in Rotherham regarding child sex exploitation.
The researcher alleges that someone accessed her office and removed data from her files.
The Home Office Affairs Select Committee report says it is not the first incident of data on child sex exploitation being removed from files – and adds that both Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police ignored compelling evidence about child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
The outstanding allegations of child abuse in Rotherham are being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
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