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Jemima Goldsmith says common thread in UK sexual abuse is ‘men abusing power’

Jemima Goldsmith says common thread in UK sexual abuse is ‘men abusing power’

In a tweet, the screenwriter highlighted that abuse was present in all communities, socio-economic backgrounds, races and faiths.
15 Jan, 2025

British screenwriter Jemima Goldsmith highlighted that sexual abuse in the United Kingdom spanned all communities and the common thread was men abusing their power.

In a recent post on X, Goldsmith, the ex-wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, said sexual abuse was present in “all communities, socio-economic backgrounds, races and faiths.” Her post came a day after the Pakistani Foreign Office condemned what it called the “increasingly racist and Islamophobic” comments directed at Pakistanis in the UK.

The statement came after tech billionaire Elon Musk entered a contentious debate surrounding the term “Asian grooming gangs”, with remarks sparking concerns of perpetuating harmful anti-Pakistani stereotypes.

Goldsmith listed statistics of abuse by the Catholic Church in England and Wales, British boarding schools, and British Asian grooming gangs.

According to data provided by her, the Catholic Church, from 1970 to 2015, had 3,000 instances of child sexual abuse, 936 allegations of paedophilia, 133 convictions and 52 priests defrocked.

She wrote that boarding schools in the UK had thousands of alleged victims over decades, with 425 accused paedophiles and 160 charged from 2012 to 2018.

Goldsmith said UK Asian grooming gangs had at least 1,400 victims and 60 child rapist convictions from 1997 to 2013.

In a footnote, the screenwriter added, “The exact number of victims for all of the above is unclear, as cases so often go unreported for years. And there have been multiple failures to prosecute perpetrators and protect victims.”

She emphasised that the common denominator was men, “often from closed, hierarchical, gender-segregated communities”, abusing their power.

A decade-old report discussing how gangs of mostly Pakistani men had groomed, trafficked and raped young white girls returned to the political agenda in Britain following criticism from Musk, Reuters reported last week.

The issue was under the spotlight after the tech billionaire called for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to quit over what he said was Starmer’s failure to tackle the scandal when he was the country’s leading prosecutor, accusing him of being “complicit in the rape of Britain”.

According to The Guardian, British feminist writer Julie Bindel highlighted that many on the right have “suddenly become laser-focused on the sexual abuse of girls –– so long as they are white and their perpetrators are Pakistani Muslim”. Those “focused exclusively on the ethnic origin and religious affiliation of a particular set of abusers”, she added, are “not really interested in the girls at all”.

The publication stated that the problem in the matter was that the data on gang-based child sexual exploitation was “shockingly poor, especially with respect to ethnicity”.

A report from November by Hydrant, a British policing programme on child sexual exploitation, showed that in 2023, ethnicity was only recorded in a third of such cases.

Among these, 83 per cent of perpetrators were white and 7pc were Asian, which included 2.7pc with Pakistani heritage. The Guardian said that figures for the first nine months of 2024 were broadly similar, thereby countering the current narrative, however, it was “difficult to assess its reliability given that in most cases ethnicity is not recorded”.

Comments

SyedHasni Jan 15, 2025 06:35pm
“But no matter how much evil I see, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that there is much more light than darkness.” It is refreshing to see that people are talking about it rather than sweeping something under the rug. If she feels that common thread is Men abusing power, it could be her take on the problem which is not gender specific. We know that Gender is a social construct, so her research is not scientific , it is just collection of data. Kind Regards
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Taj Ahmad Jan 15, 2025 06:38pm
I’m agreed with her comments as men’s abused their power against women’s, There should be equal rights for both men’s and women’s in our society.
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Laila Jan 15, 2025 08:50pm
Stating facts are neither racist nor islamophobic. Ask why so many Pakistanis are involved in this. These are fathers, sons, husbands. Where the .... is this allowed in islam? If anything, it's racist towards the British "white" girls (children), who were/are robbed of their innocence and childhood for decades. Also Pakistani is a nationality. Not a religion. So the FO can go to hell. If this was in Pakistan, there would no attention, outrage or protest. It would silently continue. Just like our rampant child abuse is currently continuing inside the so-called islamic republic. Shame on the FO to try to censor this. Not done!!! Also thanks to Dawn for having the guts to highlight this issue when all Pak media and YouTubers have been silent.
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Hamid Ali Tabatabai Jan 15, 2025 10:29pm
Pakistani Male dominated culture has a sex abuse problem. Lets face it and stop hiding behind terms such a islamophobia etc
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B. Sridhar Jan 15, 2025 10:46pm
In social research there is a practice of analyzing subsections of data to inquire if there are any specific patterns that are more informative than the meta analysis. Instead of sticking to a broad categorization as Asian. If 11 out of 13 belong to a specific ethnic or religious background, that needs to be pursued.
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Thev Dia Jan 16, 2025 01:17am
Good compilation.
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SyedHasni Jan 16, 2025 02:18am
64,124 cases were reported in FY23;1,395 involved sexual abuse. 93.8% of individuals sentenced for sexual abuse were men. 55.4% were White, 16.0% were Black, 14.0% were Hispanic, Their average age was 38 years. 96.2% were United States citizens. 68.5% had little or no prior criminal history The top five districts for individuals sentenced for sexual abuse Middle District of Florida ;District of South Dakota ;Eastern District of Virginia ;Northern District of Texas ;Eastern District of Michigan .Western District of Missouri District of Utah The Common Thread here is White men in their 30s who are US citizens living in those 5 districts- This kind of stereotyping is Ridiculous to be the least. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to scientifically support the feminist theory of gender imbalance as the sole cause of sexual violence. However I agree, while the imbalance of power between men and women may not be the sole or direct cause of sexual offending, it is clearly a factor.
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Joe Jan 16, 2025 06:57am
Just because you were married to Imran and have still loyalty towards him. Ms Jasmine it is British police records which say clearly and loudly that most of sexual crimes against young white women are committed by Pakistan Gangs.
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Mullah Jan 16, 2025 10:33am
It is true that the catholic Church and the boarding schools have committed grave child abuses. Also some British men and some Pak istani men have comitted attrocities against children. It is not fair to call it Asian grooming gangs because it implies that it is Chinese. Asian is usually referred to Chinese. Chinese were not involved in these gangs. We do not find this kind of mass crimes with other religions. It is probably to do with the Abrahamic religions. There is no point blaming Musk. He only pointed out the crimes.
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Ahmed Jan 16, 2025 10:53am
It is done by men of all types. There is no "often" over here. Show your data of you have proof. Jeffery Eppstien and the Prince weren't from gender segregated communities. Or closed ones.
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M. Emad Jan 16, 2025 11:42am
Ms. Jemima Goldsmith is amazing !
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BUSAIF_q8R Jan 16, 2025 11:46am
I would remove MEN and agree with the Abusing Power. The cause of this power is writ of law in the land due to the complicated or rather soft judiciary system which one way or the other do let the oppressors escape with minimum damage. Exemplary punishment creates fear for such criminals and eventually minimize the misuse of the the mean desires or wills. Bottomline reforms are required to protect the innocent and severely punish the guilty ... Do you agree?
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Jan 16, 2025 12:26pm
Once again, she is 100 percent right.
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Laila Jan 16, 2025 04:21pm
Whether its 1% og 10% doesnt matter. Of course the majority of groomers are "white" because, suprise!, the UK is 83% "white". Instead of downplaying, implicitly justifying it and using the "what about" card in some misguided show of love for Pakistan, Jemima and we, should worry about, why so many Pakistanis are involved in this. 60 are only those caught and convicted. How many have not been prosecuted and are still grooming is undocumented. After 6 decades of migration the number of Pakistanis and descendents in UK is grossly underestimated. True for most of Europe. After all the UK is more worried about being called racist than guarding their borders. Stating facts is neither racist nor islamophobic. But targeting white girls is racist. The 60 are just tip of the iceberg. This was and is happening all over the UK and rampant in Pakistan.
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Gurpreet Singh Jan 16, 2025 08:36pm
Generally speaking, men are more aggressive & toxic (myself included) than women. If every country in the world was run by a woman, the world would be a better place.
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Gurpreet Singh Jan 16, 2025 08:42pm
First the blame of the crimes committed in the grooming gangs case by people belonging to one particular community was deflected to all South Asian men, then it became all Asian men and now she’s deflecting it to all men.
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Laila Jan 17, 2025 03:15pm
I recommend the article from Al Jazeera by Julie Bindel, titled 'The UK grooming gangs and the lessons never learned' on February 23, 2024. Further there is a podcast called 'On the Case: The Grooming Scandal' ...As well as many other podcasts on the UK failing their own girls and the coverup permeating the highest levels. It's also no secret that the data on ethnicity in crime cases is poorly documented, mislabeling and often not documented. All part of the coverup, no doubt.
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Laila Jan 17, 2025 03:21pm
@SyedHasni Gender is a social construct? No, gender is a biological fact. In Islam too. I don't know of any child grooming cases lead, orchestrated and run by females. Let's face it even inside Pakistan it's a crime by males. But that does not mean all males are groomers, abusers or rapists. Most don't.
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