Shush, whisper it quietly.

[Workingman]

Or if you are the BBC, hide it in the local pages....

40 people have been arrested or investigated over sexual abuse in Rotherhan. They are on top of the 14 already jailed and 13 awaiting trial from investigations in 2017.

It concerns additional cases over and above the 1500 victims already known.

Not only is it being downplayed, but nobody will actually say who the perpetrators are only that they are from Sheffield, Rotherham, Leeds, Dewsbury and Maidstone. We can only make a strong guess that they are not "culturally" British.

The nonsensical PC cover-ups, by all parties, have to stop or these crimes will never end.

[TheOstrich]

It got a brief mention in the BBC Evening News, but blink and you'd have missed it.

That these are new cases - committed up to 2015, I gather - shows that this remains a huge problem. If it is a "cultural thing", I have no idea how it is going to be eradicated other than by punitive and exemplary sentences for the convicted.

[Kaz]

I have no idea how it is going to be eradicated other than by punitive and exemplary sentences for the convicted.

This, absolutely!

[Workingman]

Punitive and exemplary sentences for the convicted would require a change in sentencing guidelines backed up in law.

But if the issue is seen as change for cultural reasons that will not be acceptable to the PC brigades. It has to be one law for all.

[cromwell]

We are now in the downplaying phase of this appalling scandal. We've had the denials that it's happening, the intimidation of debate, the accusations of racism, the threats against people's careers etc.
But that was ended when the Jay report came out. You couldn't deny it was happening any more.
So now what is happening is downplaying. As Os points out, there's hardly any news on these cases any more.
Some of these trials are carried out under reporting restrictions. So there can be no reporter standing outside court every day, reporting on the trial. Just a report on the verdicts. Less coverage, you see.
As WM points out, they aren't even releasing the names of people charged any more (I don't know if that's even legal?). They did it in Wakefield a couple of months since, they are repeating the trick in Rotherham now.
But if you want a clue into official attitudes, attitudes that still exist, here's an example.

Former CPS prosecutor Nazir Afzal stated that in 2008 then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith sent round an email on the subject of "grooming" gangs.
Speaking on the BBC's PM programme, Mr Afzal the former North West Prosecutor who reversed a Crown Prosecution Service decision and successfully prosecuted the notorious Rochdale rape gang, said:

“You may not know this, but back in 2008 the Home office sent a circular to all police forces in the country saying 'as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for you police officers to get involved in.'”

Now, how about that for a scandal? And there has been zero follow up on Mr Afzal's statement, and the outrage of Sky and the BBC news has been markedly absent.
https://www.ukip.org/national-ukip-news-item.php?id=121

[Workingman]

"Grooming gangs" is usually how these monstrous criminals are described. and, yes, it is 'downplaying', as Cromwell says.

Grooming from the verb to groom -
1. Educate for a future role or function
2. Give a neat appearance to
3. Care for one's external appearance

It softens the issue when more accurate descriptions, such as rapist gangs or sexual abuse gangs, should be used.

Last year a Bradford woman dropped her legally concealed identity to speak out. She appeared like a shooting star... then she was gone. Her story and identity is still hidden away. Go figure.