Britons are marking the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of Charlene Downes, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared after falling victim to Muslim groomers in the seaside resort of Blackpool. Kebab shop owners Iyad Albattikhi and Mohammed Raveshi were tried with the girl’s murder, with wire recordings showing the former saying she had been “chopped up” and her body had “gone in the kebabs”. At the time, police botched the investigation, and prosecutors abandoned the trial.
For some, such as National Pulse contributor ‘Raw Egg Nationalist’, the anniversary of Charlene’s officially unsolved disappearance is marked as National Grooming Gang Day of Remembrance, when the suffering of as many as a million of mostly white, working-class victims of mostly Muslim groomers of South Asian heritage is commemorated – although the state does not observe the occasion.
This is likely because the state authorities played a significant role in facilitating the abuse, with municipal government officials, child protective services, and police officers reluctant to investigate the crimes for fear of being accused of racism.
One victim, aged 15 when she was raped by a large number of men and became pregnant, was dismissed as a “prostitute” who was making a “lifestyle choice” by officials. and police were at times actively discouraged from investigating South Asian groomers and “told to try and get other ethnicities.”
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