les and police documents. He went on to publish a series of stories in 2012 and 2013 about how grooming gangs were acting with “virtual impunity” in the South Yorkshire town.
South Yorkshire police knew exactly what was happening. They knew the girls, they knew the men, the places they were taking these children to and they shrugged their shoulders and did nothing. Rotherham metropolitan borough council sought to block his first story in May 2012 with a High Court injunction, but failed to turn up on the day of the hearing. It was published in The Times a day later. The police launched a criminal inquiry into the leak and accused The Times of “exploiting the victims”.
Finally, Rotherham council ordered an independent inquiry in August 2013 because, its chief executive admitted, “The Times won’t leave us alone”. Professor Alexis Jay’s report in 2014 found that 1,400 girls had been groomed and abused in Rotherham since the late 1990s. Children had been trafficked to other cities. Some were doused with petrol and told they would be set alight if they told anyone. The council was placed in special measures. Heads rolled. Norfolk would win the Paul Foot award and the Orwell prize for his investigations and was named the 2014 Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards.
Not that there's been any kind of happy ending to the whole wretched saga.
Julie Bindel on Norfolk at UnHerd – "a rare hero in the grooming gangs story".
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