from BBC News
A bishop has claimed church leaders have been “collectively silent on grooming gangs” in an article for The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishop of Blackburn the Right Reverend Philip North’s comments followed Baroness Louise Casey’s recent report, external, which said the ethnicity of people involved in grooming gangs had been “shied away from” by authorities.
In the article, external, he described clergy’s local knowledge as “legendary”, adding: “There must be hundreds of other church leaders like me who had heard rumours, stories and concerns yet said nothing.”
The BBC has asked the Church of England for a response.
Bishop North said: “I have heard directly and on many occasions of the anxiety of working-class families that their daughters are vulnerable to well organised gangs.
“Why did I so readily believe the voices that claimed that calling for an inquiry was a collusion with the far right?”
In January, the prime minister accused those calling for a national inquiry of “amplifying” the far right’s demands.
He has since confirmed a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs will be held after recommendations in the Casey report.
The review found poor data collection on perpetrators’ ethnicity, which could be “used to suit the ends of those presenting it”, and cause members of Asian, Pakistani and Muslim communities to “needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred”.