LONDON: Seven men who sexually abused two girls two decades ago received hefty jail sentences in the UK on Friday as a result of Britain’s biggest ever investigation into child abuse.

The men were imprisoned for seven to 25 years after being convicted of offences committed in Rotherham, in northern England, in the early 2000s.

The cases stem from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, a decade-long investigation into child sexual abuse that is the largest of its kind in UK history.

It began in 2014 following the publication of the Jay Report, which sent shockwaves around the country. It found that at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The report found that police and social services failed to put a stop to the abuse.

Some 36 people have been convicted so far as a result of the operation, according to the NCA, which investigates serious, organised and international crime.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2024