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9 September 2014: A Home Office researcher (2000-02) recalls police harassment following her documentation of child sexual abuse and institutional indifference in Rotherham

Home Affairs Select Committee. 2014/09/09. 9 September 2014 – Oral Evidence. Child Sexual Exploitation and the Response to Localised Grooming. London: UK Parliament. Licensed under Open Parliament Licence, without modification. Get it:

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Excerpt

Ian Austin: There has been a lot of reporting about your being subjected to hostility, unpleasantness – it sounds horrendous, to be honest.
Adele Weir, now Gladman: It was.
IA: Are you able to tell us who were subjecting you to that?
AW: My own employers, who were Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. But in terms of the personal intimidation and hostility, I would say that was almost exclusively South Yorkshire Police.
IA: Was that Inspector Davies?
AW: No. Two police officers, who I don’t know, made me fear for my personal safety. I was pulled over in my car on one occasion, and I was specifically asked was my MOT up-to-date, was my car tax up-to-date, did I have insurance, I had better check that my car tyres were correct, did I have any brake lights out, to the point where I said, “Are you warning me or are you threatening me?” and he said, “I’ll leave that up to your imagination, but I don’t want to see you here again.” I had another conversation with somebody, a police officer, and he said to me, “Wouldn’t it be a shame if these men found out where you live.” At the time I was in the process of moving house, and my husband and I took two decisions. One was to install a security system in our house, and the second was not to tell anybody where we were moving to. I cannot describe to you what it was like.

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Comment

The transcript links to her written evidence.

The Alexis Jay report and evidence.

Jayne Senior (Senior 2016) talks inter alia at length about the role of Adele Weir.

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Original

Q181 Ian Austin: May I ask the former researcher about the fact that there has been a lot of reporting about your being subjected to hostility, unpleasantness, it sound horrendous to be honest.

Former Researcher: It was.

Q182 Ian Austin: Are you able to tell us who were subjecting you to that?

Former Researcher: Yes, I am. My own employers, who were Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

Q183 Ian Austin: Specifically who?

Former Researcher: It came via my line manager, who was Christine Broadhurst-Brown. I also had several unpleasant meetings with other senior managers, including somebody called Rod Norton. But in terms of the personal intimidation and hostility, I would say that was almost exclusively South Yorkshire Police.

Q184 Ian Austin: Was that Inspector Davies?

Former Researcher: No, two police officers, who I don’t know, made me fear for my personal safety.

Ian Austin: Really?

Former Researcher: Yes.

Ian Austin: Because they did what?

Former Researcher: I was pulled over in my car on one occasion and I was specifically asked was my MOT up-to-date, was my car tax up to date, did I have insurance, I had better check that my car tyres were correct, did I have any brake lights out, to the point where I said, “Are you warning me or are you threatening me?” and he said, “I’ll leave that up to your imagination but I don’t want to see you here again”. I had another conversation with somebody, a police officer, and he said to me, “Wouldn’t it be a shame if these men found out where you live” and—

Ian Austin: “Wouldn’t it be a shame—”

Former Researcher: “If these men”—that is the suspected abusers—“found out where you live” and at the time I was in the process of moving house and my husband and I took two decisions. One was to install a security system in our house and the second was not to tell anybody was where we were moving to. I cannot describe to you what it was like.

Ian Austin: It is horrendous.

Former Researcher: So I think now the Committee may understand why at the end, after writing this report, I drew a line and I walked away.

Chair: Thank you.

412 words.

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