Elizabeth Hudson worked at PR agency Cream (Image: Handout)
The former manager of a tiny PR agency has told of the “astonishing attempts” to cover-up and minimise the horrors of the Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal by the authorities.
Elizabeth Hudson says she believes the Labour-run council conducted a dirty tricks campaign and employed her relatively new, small Barnsley-based communications firm Cream, wouldn’t have the skills, capacity or expertise to fully publicise the explosive Professor Alexis Jay report in the way it deserved – but ended up being splashed on front pages around the globe.
But Liz Hudson says despite the mammoth coverage the story received in 2014 many victims are still waiting for justice.
However she is torn as to whether a full national enquiry would be beneficial because she still doesn’t believe the criminal justice system is equipped to cope with the fresh trauma it would create for victims, and worries it could become little more than a political football.
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She said: “It’s devastating to know that, a decade later, some victims still haven’t received justice and similar atrocities continue today.
“With attention now back on these horrific crimes, we must focus on what matters – the safety and wellbeing of victims – and ensure they are not exploited yet again for political gain. There’s always been far too much focus on politics and not enough on protection around this.
“It shouldn’t be a matter of party politics or points scoring. We’re talking about the systemic abuse of children. Every government should want to fix it. Every decent person feels sickened by it. We need bravery and working together to put measures in place to stop it. For good.”
Liz had just launched her fledgling agency when they received the surprise commission to assist Rotherham Council just two weeks before the release of the report that would expose the “industrial scale abuse” of over 1500 girls in the South Yorkshire town by grooming gangs of men predominantly of Pakistani heritage. She believes she was selected because those in power thought she would lack the skills to handle.
She said: “The attempts by those in authority to cover up and minimise the horrors of Rotherham were astonishing.
“They wanted to be in control of all media around the report, with all its damning verdict on them, but Prof Jay sensibly requested independent PR support. So we were approached just two weeks before publication
“We were told that it wasn’t likely to be a big job, most of the report’s findings had been covered in previous investigations so not a huge story. Then we got a copy of the report’s executive summary – we dropped everything.”
The council owned copyright on the report and in a bid to “bury bed news” decided to release it on the Tuesday after the August bank holiday – a date that made preparing for a press conference of huge national significance extremely challenging.
Elizabeth revealed: “The report was subject to a strict embargo and we were not allowed to issue the press call about the press conference until the bank holiday Sunday. We had spent hours ringing around news desks to clarify who was working on that Sunday to ensure we could get the press call to the right people.
Elizabeth blew the whistle previously (Image: Handout)
At the 11th hour, Rotherham Council shifted the goal posts and decided we couldn’t send the press call until bank holiday Monday. Cue a frantic Sunday spent ringing sparse newsrooms again to get contacts for the Monday – despite not being able to tell them much at all.
Journalists who arrived for the press conference were than given just one hour to read the mammoth report before it’s public release – giving reporters little time to even read the contents before scheduled interviews of officials
The pr said: “The report was detailed and complex, yet the council wanted to release the report and start the press conference simultaneously, giving media no time to digest its findings
“In short, I’m convinced that the council thought a relatively new, small local agency wouldn’t have the skills, capacity or expertise to publicise the report in the way it deserved. Despite all the obstacles, we managed to get Prof Jay’s report on every national front page, leading every news programme, and shared across the world including calls from CNN and NYT to Al Jazeera.
Elizabeth added: “Working in PR, I understood the council’s tactics around minimising the bad news – but there are certain stories where PR tricks have no place. This was one of them – too huge, important and devastating for anything less than total transparency.
“I’ll always be incredibly proud of the work our team did that summer. After years and years of being silenced, Rotherham’s CSE victims were finally heard thanks to the hard work and diligence of Prof Jay, some excellent journalists. and a determined little PR agency in Barnsley
“So, it simply isn’t true that these devastating stories of abuse and cruelty haven’t been told. They have. The issue is that despite global attention, the fundamental changes needed to prevent what happened in Rotherham happening again weren’t implemented.
“As with so much, once the heat dies down, attention turns to the next crisis/disaster and the victims are once again forgotten. But for me personally, reading Prof Jay’s report for the first time will stay with me forever
“We sat in stunned silence, teary eyed as the reality of what Rotherham’s girls had endured sunk in. It’s devastating to know that, a decade later, some victims still haven’t received justice and similar atrocities continue today.
“With attention now back on these horrific crimes, we must focus on what matters – the safety and wellbeing of victims – and ensure they are not exploited yet again for political gain. There’s always been far too much focus on politics and not enough on protection around this.
It shouldn’t be a matter of party politics or points scoring. We’re talking about the systemic abuse of children. Every government should want to fix it. Every decent person feels sickened by it. We need bravery & working together to put measures in place to stop it. For good.”L