In a blistering and haunting column, Alison Pearson has eviscerated Britain’s establishment for its complicity in one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history—the grooming gangs scandal. Writing in The Telegraph, Pearson vividly paints a picture of a nation “under a strange enchantment” where the lives of thousands of white working-class girls were sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism.
This is no ordinary piece of commentary—it is a searing indictment of cowardice, betrayal, and moral failure at every level of British society. Pearson’s language is stark: “The evil – a vast, suppurating evil such as the land had not known for a thousand years – continued to blight that good and fair country.”
‘A Cloak of Deceit’
Pearson’s article begins with an almost fairy-tale narrative, but the horrors it recounts are all too real. She describes how men who immigrated to Britain brought with them values that clashed violently with those of their new home. These men, she says, hated the “female children” of the country they had adopted, seeing them as “white but not chaste; dirty unbelievers.” This hatred manifested in unimaginable cruelty.
“The monsters drugged and bribed them, they made them sex slaves, branding the girls’ flesh with their initials, ramming large implements into their tiny bodies the better to accommodate four men.”
Yet what is most damning is not just the actions of these perpetrators but the inaction of those tasked with protecting the victims. “Police, whose duty it was to look after the most vulnerable, either arrested the girls, dismissed their pleas for help or left them with their tormentors.”
The ‘Multicultural Spell’
At the heart of Pearson’s argument is the claim that multiculturalism became a kind of moral anaesthetic, silencing dissent and blinding society to the suffering of its most vulnerable. “No matter how wicked or cruel the men were to the children, you must never speak of it,” she writes.
Those who dared to speak out were branded racists, their warnings dismissed. Even when the perpetrators hurled racist slurs like “white slag” at their victims, Pearson argues, this too was ignored under the perverse logic of multiculturalism. “Because all cultures are equal, you see, even ones that don’t believe in equality,” she writes with biting irony.
‘A National Disgrace’
The betrayal extended beyond the perpetrators and into the highest levels of government and media. Pearson savages Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of failing to empathise with the victims and prioritising narrow political concerns over justice.
She recounts the harrowing story of Liz, a survivor who still lives in Rotherham and endures the continued presence of her tormentors. “Liz tells me she wants a ‘collective inquiry to show the depth of what’s happened and to go after those who failed us,’” Pearson writes. Yet Starmer, she argues, dismisses such calls as “far-Right,” a term she describes as a convenient way to stifle outrage.
A Nation Awakes
In a chilling indictment of British institutions, Pearson describes how councils, police, and even Parliament colluded to suppress the truth. She quotes Lucy Allan, the former MP for Telford, who recalls being warned by a chief constable not to “become a troublemaker like Sarah Champion.” Allan was also accused of racism for daring to highlight the ethnic identity of the gangs.
But Pearson leaves no room for denial. She insists the issue must be addressed head-on: “We must do what the girls want. If they want a national inquiry into the British Pakistani child-rape gangs, then they must have it.”
The Cost of Denial
The column crescendos in a devastating catalogue of atrocities, quoting from the sentencing remarks of Judge Peter Rook. His words reveal a horror that defies comprehension: “Up to four or five men would be invited to addresses so they could have sex with her. Strangers would burn her with cigarettes. Slapped. Drink and drugs to make them more malleable. One inserted a hairbrush into her vagina. She suffers from self-loathing. Nightmares, panic attacks, flashbacks, PTSD.”
Pearson reflects on the unimaginable suffering of a 13-year-old girl: “Her mother describes how by the time you had finished with her there was not much left of her apart from her aggression. You took her soul. She felt as though it had been ripped out.”
‘We Will Not Rest’
Pearson concludes with a defiant call to action. She insists the nation owes these girls justice—not just in the form of inquiries, but through deporting those responsible and rebuilding trust in the rule of law.
“We are so sorry that happened to you, sweet girl, whoever you are. And we will not rest until those responsible are brought to account.”
Alison Pearson’s column is a gut-wrenching reminder of the price Britain has paid for its moral cowardice. It demands that the nation confront the truth, no matter how painful, and ensure that such a betrayal never happens again.
