Sexual exploitation: Race "cannot be ignored"

The racial ethnicity of the men involved in the sexual exploitation of children in Greater Manchester cannot be ignored, the chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has said.

Trevor Phillips said it was "fatuous" to deny racial and cultural factors.

But the head of the CPS in the North West, Nazir Afzal, said it was wrong to put race at the centre of the case.

Mr Afzal, who was involved in the convictions, said: "I think, by focussing on the race, you are perhaps diverting from the reality, which is about men.

"All of these people had one thing in common, they were all men. Most of them were taxi drivers but nobody is talking about the fact that this is an issue for the taxi driver communities."

But Mr Phillips said he was worried about "closed communities" where people were afraid to speak out.

"I worry that, in those communities there were people who knew what was going on and didn't say anything, either because they're frightened or they're so separated from the rest of the communities that they think, 'oh, that's just how white people let their children carry on, we don't need to do anything'," he said.