Full article
Appalling abuse Prof Jay's report describes the abuse as "appalling" and says it included the rape of girls as young as 11 by "large numbers of male perpetrators".
Children were raped by multiple attackers, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated, the report revealed.
Some were doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, while others were threatened with guns, made to watch "brutally violent rapes" and warned they would be next if they told anyone.
Blatant failures The report said the "collective failures" of political and officer leadership were "blatant" over the first 12 years covered by the inquiry.
Senior managers within social care were said to have "underplayed" the scale and seriousness of the problem.
Police were said to have given CSE no priority, regarding many child victims "with contempt" and failing to act on their abuse as a crime.
The report found that three other publications in 2002, 2003 and 2006 provided "stark evidence" to the police and council.
The first of these was suppressed, which the report said had led to suggestions of a cover-up, while the other two were ignored.
Staff were said to have believed the extent of CSE had been exaggerated, while some were "overwhelmed" by the numbers of cases involved.
Asian perpetrators The majority of those behind the abuse were described as Asian, while the victims were young white girls.
Yet the report found that councillors failed to engage with the town's Pakistani-heritage community during the inquiry period.
Some councillors were said to have hoped the issue would "go away", thinking it was a "one-off problem".
The report said several staff members were afraid they would be labelled racist if they identified the race of the perpetrators, while others said they were instructed by their managers not to do so.
Several councillors interviewed believed highlighting the race element would "give oxygen" to racist ideas and threaten community cohesion.