28/08/2014 Look North (Yorkshire)

week. Great, Peter, thanks very much.

This report is shocking. Frankly, I did not expect it to be as blunt,

and I am glad it is. We also look at the extent

of child sexual abuse elsewhere. A tale of two cities as

Bradford City beat local rivals Leeds to make it through to the next

round of the Capital One Cup. Food for thought, the Yorkshire

link to what is arguably the A mixture of sunny intervals and

scattered showers tomorrow, but what about the weekend? Join me for the

very latest. Good evening,

and welcome to Look North. There are calls

for criminal charges to be brought against senior officials who were

in charge in Rotherham, when 1,400 girls were sexually

exploited over a 16 year period. John Mann,

the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, also wants an independent police

force, and not South Yorkshire, Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has

added his voice to demands for the Police and Crime Commissioner,

Shaun Wright, to step aside. Mr Wright was in charge

of children's services in Rotherham We'll report tonight on the scale of

the problem, not just in Rotherham, And we'll hear

from the man who is now in charge of But, first, our reporter,

James Vincent, is in Rotherham Yes. South Yorkshire police under

more scrutiny this evening. The IPCC, the Independent Police

Complaints Commission, says this report into child sexual

exploitation is shocking, and it's writing to the Chief Constable of

South Yorkshire police and it wants any evidence of failure is or must

conduct to be referred to them so that they can investigate. This

report has shocked Rotherham. 1400 children exploited in this town over

16 years. It's been in the news all week, and people want to know whose

fault it is. The scope of this report into child

sexual exploitation in Rotherham has now led for some to call for a

criminal investigation. People simply want answers as to why this

was allowed to happen. This man's daughter was a victim of child

sexual exploitation. They know who they are, they know they've not done

their job and if they have anything about them, they shouldn't be doing

the job. They need to be brought to task because it is perverting the

course of justice. They are offices for the police and also the people

in the council are paid to safeguard children. It's not just those

terribly affected by grooming. The town has been shamed and people

living here at angry. It's disgusting to hear about it,

especially the amount it is, it's terrible. To be fair, as a

community, we should stick together and not be doing stuff like that,

and the council needs to do something, step up. These guys now,

they need to quit don't they? They need to quit. From the top to the

bottom. We know about Rotherham Council. They need to get their

finger out, and start looking after people what they are meant to be

looking after, and not just sitting on their backsides. The police

commissioner continues to be under pressure to resign. He is a

politician without a party and now the Prime Minister is saying he

needs to take responsibility. But he's the only person who can decide

if he stays or goes. The reports are shocking from Rob from, and the

scale of the abuse that was going on is deeply shocking and I think the

Home Secretary was right yesterday to say, having looked at the report,

and the fact that the police commissioner was at the time head of

Children's Services, that the right decision would be to resign and take

full responsible at you for what happened. One news Chris chased the

police commissioner, his former colleagues are queueing up to

criticise him. It is wilful neglect. If you know that there is child

abuse on this scale and of this nature going on, to turn a blind eye

to it, and there is a criminal charge that can be brought, and we

should use the law against those people. The government has already

said it will have an inquiry into what has happened in Rotherham. For

many, that is not enough. There is even more pressure on the

police Commissioner this evening. In the last hour, his deputy police

commissioner, a Labour councillor, has decided she will quit. She is a

Labour politician but, of course, after Shaun Wright resigned from the

Labour Party, she is saying she can't work with him, and he should

have stepped down. No word from Shaun Wright or South Yorkshire

police. We asked both for interviews. South Yorkshire police

told us there are 173 active child sexual exploitation investigations

in South Yorkshire at the moment. 32 of those are based here in

Rotherham. Thank you.

Well, the report author has insisted that there were no senior figures

The report into sexual exploitation in Rotherham tells us that

from 2005, it's hard to believe any senior people at the council were

So, who held some of the key posts, and where are they now?

Our correspondent Jamie Coulson has the details.

Well, the report author has insisted that there were no senior figures

Now, Roger Stone has been the council

leader since 2003, and is the only senior person to resign so far.

He said it's "only right he takes responsibility

Shaun Wright is currently South Yorkshire's Police and

But he managed children's services between 2005 and 2010.

He's resisted calls to resign, although he has stepped down

Joyce Thacker is the current Executive Director of Children

She's already a controversial figure, having removed three

ethnic minority children from their foster parents because of their

And, today, Rotherham Council gave her its full support.

Sonia Sharp is a former Director of Children and

She now holds a senior position in Australia.

She has said she "regrets every case of exploitation of young girls but

"feels strongly that their collective efforts led to gradual

"situation." And Mike Cuff, a former Chief Executive who was in

post between 2004`2009, has said he "takes his share of responsibility

"for the council's failure to prevent the appalling abuse."

These are just some of the 52 senior people from the

council, past and present, who were interviewed as part of the review.

Steve Ashley is the independent chair of Rotherham's

A former chief superintendent with Merseyside Police, he took up

I began by asking him why no`on else from

the council, including the head of Children's' Services, Joyce Thacker,

I can't speak for them as to why they're not prepared to speak.

What I can say is this, the director of Children's Services

She is very committed to sorting these problems out.

I think the report doesn't highlight particular issues

And all I can do is talk about people and

The report itself says, and I'm virtually quoting, it's hard

to believe that any senior people, from the leader of the Council

and chief executive downwards or not aware of the problem.

That, of course, suggests a cover`up.

Everybody knew what was going on, nobody wanted to tackle the issue.

No, and I think you've got to look at what level people were at,

and what their involvement was at that point.

It's totally impractical to think that you can remove every senior

manager that is currently working in Rotherham social care,

or the police service, for that matter, and then move forward.

I do accept absolutely, though, that if people have been found

wanting in the past, and that is still a concern, then, of course,

All I can say is that in terms of, certainly, the chief executive and

the director of Children's Services, they have shown nothing but full

They were very supportive of this report.

You see, in Rotherham, the one thing they do,

and I'm sure you're aware of this, when you go in the town, or in the

When they see the senior management of Rotherham Council hiding

behind statements, they don't like it and they smell a rat.

Rotherham could have been opened up any more than it has been.

This report is shocking in its nature, it's, you know,

frankly I did not expect it to be as blunt, and I am glad it is.

People have to answer for the actions they took,

The Chief Executive has been in post, I think, since about 2009,

and, when, really, the moves to improve the situation could occur.

So, from that point of view, what I'm interested in is are the people

we've got now totally committed to moving this issue forward?

Would people be listened to if they went to the police?

Because one of the suggestions is that there's

no support by the council to help them in future anyway.

The fact of the matter is that support

for post abuse victims, not just in South Yorkshire, at in the whole

for post abuse victims, not just in South Yorkshire, but in the whole

We rely almost entirely on charity organisations to provide

I have written to the Health and Well`being Board to enter

discussions with them about what funding there's going to

I've no doubt that there will be considerable argument now that takes

place about who is responsible for that.

What I care about is the fact that 1400 children now need

support, and, one way or another, I will fight, I think along with many

Well, the issue of child sexual exploitation isn't

Police forces across Yorkshire are dealing with

West Yorkshire police revealed it's investigating more than 60 cases

of child sexual exploitation in the county.

Our reporter Phil Bodmer has been investigating the scale

The scale of child sexual exploitation in

Rotherham has rung alarm bells in towns and cities across Yorkshire.

The journalist who first uncovered the extent of grooming in Rotherham

believes the problem extends beyond South Yorkshire.

We certainly found very specific examples in Leeds, in Keighley,

in Bradford, Dewsbury, where, over a number of years, girls had fallen

Attempts had been made by those children, or their family,

their parents, to draw attention to it, and we saw records where,

unfortunately, those in authority, who had a duty to protect children,

had failed to take the action that needed to be taken.

In West Yorkshire, police say they are currently

investigating 65 cases of grooming but admit the true figure could be

much higher, as many victims are simply too afraid to report abuse.

There are investigations ongoing across all areas of West Yorkshire,

We have 65 live investigations at this moment in time.

In the main, they are single offender and single victim, but we

have three large investigations with multiple offenders,

Do you believe the problem could be higher than the 65 you're

Most definitely, in the sense that we're always going to have

And I'd ask people in the voluntary sector to encourage

The former Labour MP for Keighley first raised concerns

about child sexual exploitation back in 2002, but she became frustrated

by the reluctance of the authorities to take action.

Does she now think the issue is being taken more seriously?

We're at least talking about it now, and once you start to talk

about something, you start to find solutions.

I think we are on the way to finding a solution.

And it is all agencies that have to be involved in that.

Kirtley's council says it's increasing help for those worried

by the report into child abuse in Rotherham.

Meanwhile, the Huddersfield MP is calling for a national commission to

safeguard young people against this scale of abuse happening again.

Ten years ago, a documentary was made for Channel 4

which shone a spotlight on child grooming in Bradford.

It provoked a huge response, and its original transmission was

delayed for several months because it was hijacked

It was called Edge Of The City and it uncovered some now very

Two mothers, they search for their daughters. They go missing virtually

every night. These mothers are too frightened to be identified. Their

daughters are too trusting to realise the danger they are heading

into. I walked into the room, and there were about six guys in there.

One guy wanted sex, he was nasty, forceful, throwing me about a bit.

He abused me. That sounds familiar to what we have been hearing.

Anna Hall made that documentary and joins us now.

That was ten years ago, nothing was done about it, but why? Well, in

Bradford ten years ago, there was a significant child protection

investigation in Keighley that we followed in that documentary so I

started making that in 2002 and 2003. It was transmitted in 2004. At

that point, what we found was that social services or firefighting, and

that the police were investigating. They had 50... Suspected victims who

are coming forward. But, in fact, what they were finding is that the

victims, those girls who were being investigated, would not give

statements. They didn't see themselves as being victims. And,

therefore, the police couldn't take the cases forward because there were

no complaints. What we've learned now, in the last ten years, since I

made that film, is that, as people have come to understand, what is

this sexual exploitation all about? It is about the psychological

manipulation of really young teenagers. Are we actually

frightened of getting to the real issue about who is to blame for this

situation as well? You knew about Rotherham. Are we talking about a

certain community that may be perpetrating these things? Well, I

mean, in 2004, in my film, the cat was out of the bag. In 2004, we said

the perpetrators were overwhelmingly Asian. Now, that, in fact, was

inaccurate. What we should have said, and what we've learned now is

that the perpetrators of these big style gang grooming cases are

overwhelmingly British Pakistani. And lots of people will say you

can't say that. And we need to be careful about saying that. Of

course, we are not saying that is every type of child sexual abuse,

but what it seemed to me, as I made that film in 2004, and I knew about

this style of grooming in 1996 in Bradford because Barnardos in

Bradford had uncovered exactly this pattern 20 years ago. So, my thing

was always if there is a pattern that is staring us in the face,

let's deal with it, however unpalatable it is. How do we deal

with it? What is the answer? In my opinion, the complexity of this

crime, there are so many different layers... I've now made three films

on this issue. I made a film three years ago, and we went around the

country talking to the British Pakistani community and, guess

what? Absolutely everybody we talked to was horrified. So, the answer is

to engage, youth workers, Imam 's, leaders within the community, women

within the community, to help us understand. And that is what hasn't

happened, there hasn't been a cultural sociology. What is going

on, and why is this being allowed to happen? You are saying about

schools, making girls aware of what grooming is. Absolutely. I think we

need to go into schools in year five, your six, a seven, and the

aid. Most of these young people are in schools. Eventually, they start

cropping out but in year seven, they are in schools, and we need

specialist youth workers to go to schools.

A dramatic night of football, as Bradford City win 2`1 against a ten

Join me later to find out what is so amazing about this Yorkshire tree.

In other news now, and a 27`year`old South Yorkshire police

constable Daniel Cookson, previously based at Rotherham, appeared on bail

at Leeds Magistrates Court today charged with causing a 15`year`old

PC Cookson, who was charged last week, has been suspended

He's accused of the offence between March and November last year.

PC Cookson will appear at Leeds Crown Court next month.

Drivers fined for crossing Lendal Bridge in York will have to ask for

their money back after councillors rejected calls for everyone to be

Tens of thousands of fines were issued during a

controversial trial closure of the bridge, which has since re`opened.

City of York councillors met last night to discuss the refunds.

The Labour majority voted to give the money back only

After the debacle, we should have seen everybody given their money

back. That is what they should have done. It is disappointing Labour

have not done that. I'm guessing they're still

celebrating in Bradford after knocking Leeds United out

of the Capital One cup. It was a famous night at

Valley Parade as the League One side beat their

Championship neighbours two one. The fans turned out in their

thousands for this local derby. You'd have to go back to

when grandma and grandpa were kids for the last time Bradford beat

Leeds at Valley Parade. Lead started well

but this rash challenge from Luke Murphy was the first of two

yellow cards that would see him It wasn't one`way traffic

from that moment on but the side piled on the pressure getting

ever closer to scoring that elusive But then Leeds broke

for the first time in a long time. They had a few players

in the Bradford half. Two minutes later,

Bradford were level. Two minutes after that,

they were ahead. Fantastic game, great result,

coming back from 1`0 down, Such different emotions for Leeda

the pressure mounts of the manager. it wasn't good enough

in certain areas. Shouldn't of been appointed

in the first place. He might be a good youth coach,

but he's not a good manager. It was a result that had these

fans dreaming of Wembley again. Their reward is

a not very glamorous trip to MK Dons who, of course, knocked Manchester

United out of the competition. The pick of the ties sees

Sheffield Wednesday take on the Premier League champions

Manchester City at the Etihad. Sheffield United go to Leyton Orient

and Doncaster are away to Fulham. Yorkshire are no longer in the

one`day cup. They would beaten at home by Durham this afternoon. I

can't believe this! 4 wickets

for Richard Pyrah helped Yorkshire And with a victory target of 238,

the successful chase was largely down to this pair,

Gary Ballance and Alex Lees. They put in a partnership of 75 for

the third wicket. Lees was out for 49 and Ballance

continued on to make 61. But once they'd been separated

it all came apart, I'm afraid. For the record, Yorkshire were all

out for 206. Durham progress to the semifinals.

Harry, you're a history man, did you know that Yorkshire has

Many say it's the world's most famous apple.

It's one of the oldest surviving varieties of eating apple

and was raised 300 years ago at Ribston Hall near Knaresborough.

Today I will need eight Ribston Pippin. Along with... Flower, cream,

butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt. And this is an apple with a story.

It's one of the oldest varieties of eating apples, and it was grown

right here in Yorkshire. And this tree is the grandchild of the

original. In 1709, Sir Henry grew the first Ribston Pippin Apple. More

than a century later, Richard Cox used these seeds to grow his famous

Cox Orange Pippin. This portrait in Redstone Hull shows the original

Pippin tree. It was damaged in a storm and sprouted at the sides. For

Yorkshire, it's important because so much these days, people are

increasingly aware of where their produce comes from and to be able to

trace something like an apple back to 300 years ago is important

because you get taste that you don't get now, textures you don't get now,

and that is part of it, exploring the history and heritage. There's a

million thing you can do with apples but one recipe was especially

popular with the Georgians. Here we are next to the Ribston Pippin tree,

and we are making a phrase with Pippins. We have peeled it and

pan`fried it with some butter, and we are going to pour the batter into

the pan. We take the apple, slice it down, and place it on top of the

batter into the pan because we've got to lift this tiny pancake. Flip

it over, and there we go. There is our pudding, ready to eat. Try a

bit. What do you think? It is really, really good. Beautiful. It

is amazing. We are about to taste it for

ourselves. It's a day old. Will I lose my teeth in it?

You can find out more about the Ribston Pippin apple

at the Harrogate Flower Show, which starts on the 12th of September.

Here is this beautiful pancake. That is very tart! It's very nice.

Lovely. Do you want your denture cream?

Quite tart. Oh, they are sharp. Let's have a look at the pictures

that have come on over the last when he four hours. `` the last 24 hours.

This isn't great television when I'm eating! Thank you for your pictures.

Tomorrow, it is unsettled, breezy and showery, most of the showers in

the west and north, and you can see that the wind will be quite strong

but the weekend isn't looking too bad, and we are looking at an

improvement next week as the summer returns! Tomorrow's showers for the

West, that is a line that came through this afternoon, but it is a

lovely evening with lots of sunshine around, dry and mainly sunny, but

later the cloud will thicken with a few showers coming into the

Yorkshire Dales, in particular. Further east and south, Stein dry

with lowest temperatures coming in at 12 or 13.

A bright and breezy day to come tomorrow, most of the shower Bob

activity in the Yorkshire Dales and further south across the Pennines.

Later, those showers gang up, becoming more frequent, and they

might push eastwards, all the way towards the coast. It could become

showery in the West at times. The showers are driven on by a fresh

wind. Saturday, a few showers in the West, otherwise mainly dry. Sunday

is the best a of the weekend, and next week is looking very promising.

Glad to hear it. Try the pancake. Take it home for the kids.

And what about the football last night? Best day of my life, just

about. First time they have won at Valley Parade since 1932.

Go away if you don't me to speak to you like that!

Most schools exclude disruptive pupils.

I ain't putting up with this any more.