UK finds 300 possible suspects in child sex abuse scandal
The report found that hundreds of children were groomed, trafficked, and raped by Rotherham gangs during a period in which authorities did little to combat the problem.
Workers look from the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Offices in Rotherham, northern England. Rotherham's council leader and entire cabinet resigned after the publication of a report into their response to years of child sexual exploitation in the town.
Craig Lassig/AP, File
LONDON
Britain's National Crime Agency says roughly 300 possible suspects have been identified in an investigation into large-scale child sex abuse in a northern English town.
Senior Investigating Office Steve Baldwin said Wednesday the scale of abuse in the city of Rotherham was horrific and that large amounts of evidence have been gathered. The inquiry follows a report last summer indicating that some 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in the city of 250,000 people between 1997 and 2013.
The report found that hundreds of children were groomed, trafficked, and raped by Rotherham gangs during that period while authorities did little to combat the problem. Many of the gangs were made up of members of Britain's Pakistani community.