CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Walker-Roberts still lives in the neighborhood where she was abused and believes that children from vulnerable backgrounds are still being groomed. While one of her abusers was jailed, others were never caught. She said that there are still too few safeguards in place to protect them and regularly speaks to community leaders and politicians about her story to raise awareness. <\/p>\n
While she\u2019s grateful that Musk\u2019s intervention has thrust the issue of child sexual exploitation back into the spotlight, she worries that her suffering, her story, and her advocacy have now been overshadowed by those seeking to make the conversation about race. <\/p>\n
Musk \u201cneeds to say that this is about survivors, not about everyone else. Too many people are jumping on this bandwagon,\u201d Walker-Roberts said, noting that the far-right had hijacked the conversation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the victims that need the help, not Tommy Robinson or any other political party,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Others wish Musk had stayed out of the debate altogether. <\/p>\n
Nazir Afzal, who was the chief prosecutor in Northwest England from 2011 to 2015, when much of the abuse first came to light, describes Musk\u2019s involvement as \u201cmisinformed and dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cUnless Mr. Musk starts talking about the real issues, he\u2019s just stirring up a racist pot,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Afzal, who successfully prosecuted numerous child abuse cases during his tenure, said that the vast majority of recorded child sexual abuse cases in the UK are carried out by White men. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you just focus on the brown guy, you\u2019re telling girls: \u2018Beware of the brown guy.\u2019 You\u2019re not telling them that they\u2019re 40 times more likely in this country to be abused by a British White guy,\u201d he said, citing the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre)\u2019s most recent data on child sexual abuse in England and Wales that indicates 2% of perpetrators are of Pakistani backgrounds, whereas 88% are White. The dataset represents the three-quarters of cases where ethnicity was recorded. <\/p>\n
But those facts are often drowned out by the \u201cgrooming gang\u201d scandal, particularly in towns like Oldham, with larger than national average non-White populations and high rates of poverty. <\/p>\n