Thread by @BrianCathcart

A Home Office report into 'grooming gangs' says 'it is likely that no one community or culture is uniquely predisposed to offending'. So where does that leave @thetimes and its rogue reporter Andrew Norfolk? 1/6 bylinetimes.com/2020/12/17/hom…

The Times insisted there was 'overwhelming evidence' of 'a deeply rooted pattern of criminal behaviour with a clear ethnic component'. But 2 years of effort by Home Office officials (plainly under pressure to prove the paper right) produced no credible evidence at all. 2/6

So there is no 'clear ethnic component'. No one can claim it is disproportionately 'a Muslim thing'. Reporter Andrew Norfolk's creation, beloved of the extreme right, turns out to be just as flawed as his discredited 'Christian girl forced into Muslim foster care' story. 3/6

There have been appalling sexual exploitation cases in which men of Pakistani heritage have been convicted, but there are many, many other cases that get less publicity and that involve other ethnicities. In fact most offenders in this area are white, says the Home Office. 4/6

Will @thetimes now withdraw its claim that there is 'overwhelming evidence' of a 'clear ethnic component'? Will it apologise to Britain's Muslims? Will it investigate the anti-Muslim journalism of Andrew Norfolk that was exposed in this report? 5/6 inforrm.org/2019/06/28/unm…

Important to give credit here to Dr Ella Cockbain of University College London (@DrEllaC), who has been debunking claims about ethnicity and 'grooming gangs' in the academic literature for years. Her work is vindicated by the Home Office findings. 6/6