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British police and the Crown Prosecution Service have apologized for delays in investigating the case. One of the victims first spoke out in 2008, but prosecutors failed to press charges amid concerns that a jury might have questioned the girl's credibility. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating why that decision was made. The trial at Liverpool Crown Court was a tense affair marred by allegations of intimidation. Far-right groups such as the English Defense League and the British National Party led protests shortly after the trial began Feb. 6, and two nonwhite defense lawyers quit the case, saying they had been threatened. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of moderate Muslim think-tank the Ramadhan Foundation, said the trial had exposed a real problem that should not be ignored out of fear it would galvanize racists. "We've got to reclaim the agenda from the BNP," he said. "Race is a contributing factor and police have to confront it. "We obviously have a problem with some Pakistani men, criminals, who engage in this behavior believing that white girls are worthless and they can use and abuse them in this way."
[Associated
Press;
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