Watchdog confirms probe into actions of former South Yorkshire Police chiefs

The Independent Office for Police Conduct revealed today that senior officers are accused of failing in their statutory duty to protect children between 1997 and 2013.

APPEAL: Reward of £20,000 offered to help catch attacker of Radio Sheffield presenterA report by Professor Alexis Jay in 2015 found at least 1,400 children from Rotherham were sexually exploited by gangs of predominantly Pakistani heritage between 1997 and 2013 while those in authority failed to act.

POLICE: Missing Sheffield teenager found safeREAD MORE: Killers still at large four months after murder of Sheffield dad-of-threeEarlier this year, the National Crime Agency, which is investigating historic cases of abuse in a bid to find offenders, said the number of victims had risen to 1,510.

The IOPC, which launched Operation Linden to look into the actions of police officers during the same period, will now focus on former senior command team members after reports were allegedly shared with them highlighting the issue of child sexual exploitation in the town.

In 2015, Dr Angie Heal, who was a drugs analyst for South Yorkshire Police when she wrote her reports, said one of them in 2006 was sent to around 90 people, including high ranking officers and different agencies involved with the protection of children.

But Med Hughes, South Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable at the time the 2006 report, told MPs in 2014 that he had not seen Dr Heal’s reports and had had ‘no understanding of the scale and the scope of the problems that have come to light’.