Big Increase In Race Hate Crime In Rotherham

A surge in religious and race hate crimes is causing renewed alarm within the town of Rotherham.

Children as young as five are said to have been racially abused and one estimate suggests a tenfold increase in hate crimes.

Community leaders have called for Government intervention amid claims that some of the crimes were going unpunished.

Others say local shoppers are travelling out of the town due to the number of far-right protest marches.

An advocate for abused children, Chrissy Meleady, said she had seen far right extremists chasing a family and screaming "Muslim paedophile" at a seven-year-old boy.

She said: "We've had children having their jaws and arms broken. We've had women walking home from shopping with their children running, trying to escape far right demonstrations with gangs of men chasing and roaring at them that they were going to harm them."

The number of attacks is said to have risen significantly since a report in 2014 found that 1,400 white children in Rotherham had been subjected to sexual abuse by predominantly Pakistani-heritage men.

Some community leaders say the recent terrorist attacks in Paris have inflamed an already toxic atmosphere in the town.

One taxi driver, Ashraf Ali, told Sky News he had been repeatedly attacked by people purely because he was a Muslim.

"One put their hands through the hole in the screen between the back of the taxi and me and tried to choke me.

"I had to lean forward so they couldn't hit me. They tried to punch me and smash the perspex screen."

Some taxi drivers in the town have accused the extreme group Britain First of trying to "wind them up" by implying that innocent Muslims are involved in child grooming.

The group's deputy leader Jayda Fransen denied trying to inflame the situation in Rotherham.

After Sky News was initially denied access to her organisation's inaugural conference in Derbyshire she agreed to speak, telling us she thought the abuse of non-Muslim children was "an inherent part of Islam".

Rotherham's Labour MP Sarah Champion condemned the remarks, saying: "I find that an extraordinary comment and at best naive."

She added: "Where do you draw the line? First it's Islam and then what other faith is not good enough or what other way of living isn't good enough? It really disturbs me that people are saying that in public forums."