Cultural traditions are no excuse for sex crimes, minister warns Speaking at a meeting of a task force set up to tackle grooming of young girls, Mr Green said the public sector needed to be better at helping young British victims. The Sexual Violence Against Children and the Vulnerable task force is considering measures which include pre recorded cross examination and compulsory training for barristers defending child-sex cases. New guidance is also due to be published to improve how police and the Crown Prosecution Service deal with suspected cases of abuse. In May last year, nine Asian men were convicted of grooming offences in Rochdale, which involved girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who were plied with alcohol, food and money in return for sex. In Oxford a gang of seven men of Asian or North African origin forced girls as young as 11 into prostitution, carrying out a campaign of abuse in the city for six years. Members of the gang were convicted earlier this year. Mr Green added: "We have turned over a stone and discovered that for a number of years, in the case of organised grooming, horrible and profoundly unacceptable things have been happening in a number of places in this country and large parts of the public sector have got to get better at dealing with them." Mr Green said the task force, which met for the first time on Tuesday, would eventually address all forms of child sexual abuse but was treating organised grooming as a priority. The sex ring in Rochdale sparked a national debate over the role of largely Asian men in grooming white girls, and what impact cultural background had on the campaign of abuse being able to continue for so long. Police and social workers were accused of not investigating the gang for fear of being branded racist, and instead toeing a 'politically correct' line. Speaking after the conviction, Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said it was a worry that the men came from closed communities that may have turned a blind eye to what was happening. He also raised fears of a national scandal if it was found the authorities failed to act because of concerns about demonising the Asian community. Men of Pakistani heritage are significantly over-represented among those convicted of group street-grooming crimes, according to The Times. It has also been claimed some interpretations of Islam leads men to believe what would be morally wrong with a Muslim girl is permitted with a non-Muslim victim.