South Yorkshire Police accused of covering up widespread sexual abuse in Sheffield on a scale ‘bigger than Rotherham’

Tony Brookes, a former police constable with 30 years’ service (pictured), claims South Yorkshire Police knew that girls as young as 12-years-old were being raped, abused and assaulted in Sheffield but ignored it

South Yorkshire Police accused of covering up widespread sexual abuse in Sheffield on a scale ‘bigger than Rotherham’

South Yorkshire Police has been accused of ignoring hundreds of reports of sexual abuse against young girls in a widespread cover-up deemed ‘bigger than Rotherham’.

Tony Brookes, a former police constable with 30 years’ service, claims the force knew that girls as young as 12-years-old were being raped and assaulted but chose to ignore it.

It is understood that more than 200 girls were reported to the force as being potential victims of sexual exploitation in Sheffield, mainly between 2007 and 2010.

Mr Brookes, who has now left the force, said he believes the ‘size of the exploitation was massive in Sheffield’, adding: ‘I think bigger than in Rotherham’.