Former Home Secretary Jack Straw has accused some Pakistani men in Britain of seeing young white women as "easy meat" for sexual abuse.
7:42AM GMT 08 Jan 2011
The Blackburn MP has called on the Pakistani community to be "more open" about the issue after describing about a "specific problem" involving young Pakistani men's attitudes towards white girls.

He was speaking after two Asian men were jailed after subjecting a series of vulnerable girls to rapes and sexual assaults.

Abid Mohammed Saddique, 27, was jailed for a minimum of 11 years at Nottingham Crown Court and Mohammed Romaan Liaqat, 28, was told he must serve at least eight years before being considered for release.

The men were the ring leaders of a gang that befriended girls aged from 12 to 18 in the Derby area and groomed them for sex.

Thirteen men were charged in relation to Operation Retriever, which Derbyshire Police set up, and 11 stood trial charged with offences relating to 26 alleged victims. Out of the original 13, a total of nine swere convicted of sexual offences.

Speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Straw said: "Pakistanis, let's be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders' wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders.

"But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men ... who target vulnerable young white girls.

"We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way."

The judge said he did not believe the crimes were "racially aggravated", but Mr Straw said he thought vulnerable white girls were at risk of being targeted by some Asian men.

"These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men, they're fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically," he said.
"So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat.
"And because they're vulnerable they ply them with gifts, they give them drugs, and then of course they're trapped."

Police in Derbyshire have insisted that the sexual abuse case should not be treated as a racial issue.
The sentencing of Saddique and Romaan came a day after Prime Minister David Cameron said "cultural sensitivities" should not hinder police action in such cases.

Speaking on Friday to The Times during a visit to Oldham, Mr Cameron said: "We should not be put off by cultural sensitivities or anything like that. Pursue the evidence, pursue criminality wherever it leads."