ENGLAND FAILS THE GIRLS ONCE AGAIN

In England, girls were groomed, raped and trafficked around by organized gangs for decades. Many of them were children. The authorities looked away, because the perpetrators were predominantly Pakistani Muslim men, and the fear of being called racist weighed heavier than the girls' lives.

The victims fought on their own. For years. A few of them actually got their rapists convicted.

Now England is letting them out again.

A new law, the Sentencing Act, puts prisoners back on the street after a third of their sentence. The reason is lack of space. The cells are full, and the state would rather open the doors than build new ones.

Sammy Woodhouse was 14 when her abuser took her. He got 35 years for 23 sexual offences against children. Now he has been assessed for release and could be out by the autumn.

From 35 years to around 10.

They promised the victims that the worst ones would stay behind bars. The letters came anyway. Women who gave years of their lives to get justice are now being told that their rapists will soon be free and living in the same town as them and their children.

A state's first duty is to protect the innocent.

The English state could not protect these girls when it mattered. It could not punish, when the guilt lay open and proven. And now it cannot even hold on to the few it got behind bars.

And here is the question no editor dares ask themselves: why is it those of us with large platforms and reach who have to inform citizens across borders about something that should be splashed in huge letters across every front page?

This is not a niche. It is children who were raped, and a state that is now setting the perpetrators free.

If this is not front page news, what is?

The media stayed silent when the girls were raped. They stay silent again, while the men walk free. Consistent. You have to give them that.

Losers!