Majority of paedophiles in UK are of Pakistani origin, says Sajid Javid

LONDON: British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Wednesday said a high number of men found involved in child exposition in the United Kingdom are of Pakistani origin.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today, Javid - who has Pakistani heritage - said that ignoring the ethnicity of abusers gives "oxygen" to extremists.

"When it comes to gang-based child exploitation it is self-evident to anyone who cares to look that if you look at all the recent high-profile cases there is a high proportion of men that have Pakistani heritage," the Conservative party representative said.

Grooming gangs have recently been convicted in Huddersfield, Oxford, and Rotherham.

"There could be - I'm not saying that there are - there could be some cultural reasons from the communities that these men came from that could lead to this kind of behaviour," Javid added.

He further delved into the issue and said: "When I'm asking my officials to go away and do research to look into the causes of gang-based child exploitation, then I want them to leave no stone un-turned and to look at everything.

"For me to rule something out just because it would be considered sensitive would be wrong. If I had ignored it, or been seen to ignore it, that is exactly what I think extremists would like to see in this country. It would give them oxygen and I refuse to do that."

When asked about the decision to strip some offenders with dual citizenship of their British nationality and deport them to Pakistan, Javid said there was a "very high bar" on such decisions, which were usually only taken in cases of terrorism.

"I'm the British home secretary and my job is to protect the British public, to do what I think is right to protect the British public. That's my number one job," he said.