Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) will assume control of a high-profile investigation into allegations that former South Yorkshire Police officers were complicit in the Rotherham grooming gang scandal — including accusations that some officers personally raped victims.
The move follows mounting criticism of South Yorkshire Police (SYP) for leading its own inquiry, raising concerns over bias and conflicts of interest. The NCA’s Operation Stovewood team will now lead the probe into claims that officers collaborated with predominantly Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs or engaged in abuse themselves.
One victim accused former Police Constable Hassan Ali and another unnamed officer of raping her in the back of a police car when she was a child. Such allegations have intensified public distrust of SYP’s internal Operation Linden, which was already under fire for downplaying the force’s role in failing to protect victims.
Professor Alexis Jay — whose landmark 2014 report revealed that around 1,400 mostly white girls were abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 — said she was “shocked” SYP was investigating itself. She noted that institutions often prioritize protecting their own reputation over safeguarding children.
NCA operations head Philip Marshall pledged that victims would remain “at the heart” of the investigation and encouraged others with information to come forward. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will also be involved, though the watchdog has faced criticism for an eight-year, multi-million-pound investigation into the scandal that failed to hold any officers meaningfully accountable.
The IOPC’s own findings exposed a culture within SYP that blamed victims, downplayed abuse, and avoided confronting the grooming gangs for fear of inflaming “racial tensions” in the community. Some officers dismissed underage victims as “consenting,” told parents their daughters would “grow out of it,” or claimed abuse could “teach her a lesson.”
The NCA takeover marks a renewed attempt to deliver justice in one of Britain’s worst child exploitation scandals, where trust in local law enforcement remains deeply damaged.
