South Yorkshire’s Police Commissioner has refused to resign over the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal.
Shaun Wright has faced calls to stand down in the wake of a damning report which revealed more than 1,400 children were victims of abuse there between 1997 and 2013.
He was a Labour councillor for Rotherham until he was elected Police Commissioner in 2012, and was in charge of children’s services from 2005 to 2010.
But Mr Wright told Sky News he was “completely astonished” at the abuse, and said he had been unaware of the scale of the problem.
He said: “I take my share of the responsibility. There was systemic failure. I only wish that I knew more at the time.
“If I knew then what I know now then clearly more could have been done.
“I do have regrets I wasn’t more aware of the issue at the time.”
He claimed information was not “escalated up” to the political level or senior managers.
Mr Wright said: “I am completely astonished by the scale of the issue that’s been identified.
“I am just as disgusted as any other right-minded thinking person in Rotherham and indeed across the country to the scale of this problem.”
More follows…
Rotherham Abuse: Police Chief Refuses To Quit
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