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South Yorkshire police commissioner Shaun Wright: "I feel let down by this report"
South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner has vowed to stay in the job despite calls for him to quit over widespread child abuse in Rotherham.
An inquiry found at least 1,400 children in the town were sexually exploited by predominantly Asian criminal gangs between 1997 and 2013.
PCC Shaun Wright was the councillor in charge of children's services at Rotherham Council from 2005 to 2010.
He said he believed he was the most appropriate person to hold the post.
A report commissioned by the council was published on Tuesday and revealed the massive scale of abuse in Rotherham.
The inquiry team noted fears among council staff of being labelled "racist" if they focused on victims' descriptions of the majority of abusers as "Asian" men.
'Long think to himself'In the wake of the report's findings, political rivals and colleagues have said Labour PCC Mr Wright should stand down from his role.
A Labour spokesman has told the BBC: "In the light of this report, it's appropriate... Shaun Wright should step down."
Chris Bryant, shadow welfare minister, said: "I think that everybody who is involved in council offices as well as councillors need to consider their position but most importantly Shaun [Wright] I think should sit down and have a very long think to himself again this afternoon."
However, Mr Wright told the BBC the scale of the problem in Rotherham had "come as a surprise".
"Had I known then what I know now I could have done more," Mr Wright said.
"As an elected member I came into this role to make a difference. At every stage I've done my utmost to protect those people.
"I have taken lessons learned in that office and brought them to bear in my new role with South Yorkshire Police.
"I believe I am the most appropriate person to hold this office at this current time," he said.
Key findings of the report- Children as young as 11 were raped by multiple attackers, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated.
- The "collective failures" of political, police and social care leadership were "blatant" over the first 12 years covered by the inquiry.
- Police were said to have given child sex exploitation no priority, regarding many child victims "with contempt" and failing to act on their abuse as a crime.
- The majority of those behind the abuse were described as Asian, while the majority of the reported victims were young white girls. The inquiry team noted fears among council staff of being labelled "racist" if they focused on victims' descriptions of the majority of abusers as "Asian" men.
Rotherham Borough Council leader Roger Stone quit following the publication of the report, which was commissioned by the council and detailed gang rapes, grooming, trafficking and other sexual exploitation on a wide scale in the South Yorkshire town.
But calls for further resignations have gathered momentum as the spotlight now turns on to others at the helm of local services during the time of the abuse.
Continue reading the main storyIt has emerged that no council employees would face disciplinary action, as the authority's chief executive, Martin Kimber, said there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
This is despite the report's author, Professor Alexis Jay, concluding there had been "blatant" collective failures by the council's leadership.
Former children's minister Tim Loughton told the BBC's Newsnight that any social worker involved in the failings in Rotherham "has absolutely no place" in the care of children.
The Conservative MP claimed it was a "common theme" in sex abuse scandals that "nobody pays the consequences".
"A social worker responsible for protecting vulnerable children, to turn a blind eye to a 12-year-old having sexual relationships with a stranger twice, three times her age, and to say that was consensual sex and to do nothing about it - that person has absolutely no place in anything to do with vulnerable children," he said.
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Muhbeen Hussain, founder of the Rotherham Muslim Group: "There is nothing in the Pakistani or Muslim culture that condones such actions...we are asking for prosecutions"
Speaking on the same programme the Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, said the report showed front-line staff had tried to tackle the problem but those in senior positions had failed.
"The fact that they could still be working in child protection, of course that is something that all of us are very concerned about and we need to investigate very fast," she said.
"That benign neglect of the children they're meant to be taking care of could still be going on."
'Nothing was done'One of the victims, who is known as Emma and is now 24, told the BBC's Today programme she had been groomed by men in Rotherham from the age of 12.
"Start Quote
End Quote Karen Froggatt Victim SupportThe details in that report were truly horrific and it's obvious that some serious mistakes were made in Rotherham"
Her sexual exploitation began when she was 13 and a few months later she reported numerous rapes to the police.
"I had saved all my clothes that I had been raped in and I gave them to the police but they later said they lost them," she said.
"They said as there was no evidence it would be my word against his.
"These people have been left free to walk the streets and left unpunished. My parents went to the relevant services, the people who should have been able to help, and nothing was done."
Emma's abuse continued until she was 15 when her parents moved her abroad.
Karen Froggatt, a director of the charity Victim Support, told the BBC: "The details in that report were truly horrific and it's obvious that some serious mistakes were made in Rotherham.
"It takes a huge amount of courage for a victim of such a crime to come forward, and all they want is for it to stop.
"For the victims not to have been believed and to actually have been treated with disdain and contempt is just appalling and just makes the trauma that they've gone through a million times worse."
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Former Children's Minister Tim Loughton and Sarah Champion MP say they are concerned implicated staff could still be working with vulnerable children
Those politically opposed to Mr Wright believe his position as the PCC for the South Yorkshire region is now untenable.
The leader of the Lib Dem group on Sheffield City Council, Colin Ross, said: "Lessons must be learnt and those responsible must be held to account.
"Start Quote
End Quote Paul Lakin Rotherham Council deputy leaderUntil I came into children's services in 2010, I was not aware of the depth and breadth of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham"
"Shaun Wright was the councillor in charge of children's services at Rotherham Council and also sat on the Authority of South Yorkshire Police when both organisations knew about the level of child sexual exploitation, but chose not do anything about it.
"It's difficult to see how local people can have confidence in him to continue as our PCC."
UKIP Yorkshire and Humber MEP Jane Collins said: "I categorically call for the resignation of everyone directly and indirectly involved in this case.
"The Labour Council stand accused of deliberately ignoring child sex abuse victims for 16 years. The apologies we have heard are totally insincere and go nowhere near repairing the damage done."
The deputy leader of Rotherham Council, Labour's Paul Lakin, said he would not resign from the authority.
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Rotherham councillor Paul Lakin says he was "not aware of the depth and breath of child exploitation" in the town
"I've been on the council since 1999, and I am one of the councillors that's seen this through," he said.
"It's about what councillors may have known. If people don't know, then they're not really in a position to do anything about it.
"I can categorically say that until I came into children's services in 2010, I was not aware of the depth and breadth of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham."
Mr Lakin refused to say whether he thought Mr Wright should resign.
A member of the South Yorkshire police and crime panel, which scrutinises the PCC, has also called for Mr Wright's resignation.
UKIP councillor Caven Vines, said: "To me he should never have even put up for the job in the first place.
"He should go. He should have gone straight away."
Mr Wright has previously apologised for the failure of Rotherham Council while he was in its cabinet from 2005 to 2010.
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