Sorry about these multiple posts Lox and Jim.
No, really sorry.

former detective superintendent Mick Gradwell, who retired from Lancashire Constabulary last year, supported Mr Straw's comments.

He said: "From the first time I was posted to East Lancashire it has been a problem.

"What Jack Straw has said so carefully is true: There is a problem with some members of the Pakistani community targeting young women in this way. In recent years we have seen it specifically with victims aged just 14, 15 or 16-years-old who are out on the streets at night and groomed by predatory gangs.

"For people to just come out and call Mr Straw racist is wrong. There must be a debate, not on his right to make the comments but on the issue itself because if we can't do that then we can't be honest about the issues that currently affect our communities."

Mr Gradwell, who has 30 years of experience in major police investigations, said no one was saying the Pakistani community was responsible for the majority of sex crimes.

But this element of sex crimes was a "specific problem within a group of people in a minority community" that needed addressing, he said.