Tory Minister Damian Green Tells Ethnic Minorities Culture Is No Defence

'If You Live In Britain You Obey the Laws'
Damian Green said recent sex abuse cases showed that 'We have turned over a stone'
Damian Green said recent sex abuse cases showed that 'We have turned over a stone'
PA

Cultural and religious differences cannot be used as a defence for men from ethnic minorities linked to sex crimes against young girls, Tory Damian Green has insisted.

The police minister said he was not prepared to accept mitigation that some child abuse would be regarded as acceptable in other parts of the world.

A new taskforce led by Mr Green to tackle organised grooming and child sex exploitation is considering a number of measures, including giving defence barristers special training in how to deal with young witnesses.

It comes after high-profile court cases in Rochdale and Oxford, involving mainly Asian men targeting white girls.

Nine Asian men received jail sentences of between four and 19 years last May for offences which happened in and around the Rochdale in 2008 and 2009. Five girls, aged between 13 and 15, were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex but there were times when violence was used.

"We have turned over a stone and discovered that for a number of years, in the case of organised grooming, horrible and profoundly unacceptable things have been happening in a number of places in this country and large parts of the public sector have got to get better at dealing with them," Mr Green told The Times.

"The age of consent may be puberty in other parts of the world, but it is not in this country. And in this country it is not acceptable to regard anyone else as being in some way less then human because they may not share your religious views or your race.

"We are all equal under the law. If you are abusing children sexually then that's criminality and I am not prepared to accept, as a plea in mitigation, the argument that in some parts of the world this would be regarded as acceptable. It's not acceptable in Britain in 2013."

He added: "If you come and live in 21st-century Britain then you obey the laws and observe the conventions of 21st-century Britain. And the law says that exploiting children for sexual purposes is a serious and disgusting crime."

The newspaper added that although most child sex abuse offenders in the UK were white, men of Pakistani heritage were 'significantly over-represented' in cases of street-grooming.

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