Q632 Chair: Finally, before colleagues come in, let me deal with the issue of ethnicity. You were very, very specific that you felt that there was a racial and cultural issue here in this child grooming-that these were Pakistani men who were exploiting and grooming young white girls. Your articles were very, very clear on this. Is that right? Tell us why you think that is the case.
Andrew Norfolk: When we finally started looking at this in 2010, it was after a case in Rochdale, ironically, that was barely covered at all: nine men were convicted of horrific offences against one 14-year-old girl who was in a children’s home. It was not the case that got all the publicity. I was on holiday in Scotland and I heard a BBC report on the radio that mentioned that nine men had been convicted, but did not say anything about them. Because of all these other cases, I was in my car thinking, "I bet I do know something about them." When I got back I checked and, sure enough, these were South Asian Muslim names. That was when we decided we must try to work out whether there was any truth in this pattern.
Q634 Chair: So in particular, relating to organised grooming, this is a problem specifically for the British Pakistani community.
Andrew Norfolk: It is a problem that has put down deep roots in northern communities for the last 20 years. To this day, despite all the very good changes that have happened in the last two years, no official body, to my knowledge, has said, "We need to understand why."
Q635 Chair: And are you telling this Committee the reason why perhaps this has not been dealt with more severely by some of the authorities is that, because they were of Pakistani origin, there was a fear of trampling on cultural sensitivities? Is that what you are telling this Committee? You can be very frank with us; we are very keen to hear from you.
Andrew Norfolk: Okay. One of the big problems is wider than that, which is there was a genuine failure to understand what was going on.
Chair: We understand that.
Andrew Norfolk: That was not related to that, but yes. After we ran our first story, in January last year, I was contacted by so many people who had refused to speak to me before. When you have a Director of Children’s Services ringing and saying, "My staff are jumping for joy in the office today because finally somebody has said what we have not felt able to say," and when you have very senior police officers saying exactly the same-
Q636 Chair: And they have said this to you?
Andrew Norfolk: Yes.
Chair: They have actually said this to you-off the record, clearly, because you have not quoted them in your article?
Andrew Norfolk: Yes. Absolutely. There was a fear of treading into a cultural minefield that they did not really know anything about-a fear of marginalising; a fear of stereotyping-and it allowed this situation to develop to where we were two years ago.
Chair: That is very helpful
