Policeman who exposed forced marriages faces sack for 'shaming' his city

A former police inspector who has spoken out about the forced marriages endured by thousands of girls is today facing dismissal.

Police support worker Philip Balmforth - praised last week by MPs - has been removed from his duties and faces a disciplinary hearing next week after telling newspapers how Asian children are going missing from schools in Bradford, West Yorks.

Mr Balmforth, seen as an authority on so-called honour violence, is accused of “damaging the reputation” of West Yorkshire Police by speaking to journalists without consent.

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Exposed: Highlighting the problem of forced marriages has won praise for Philip Balmforth in the Commons

The force - which investigated 176 forced marriages in the past 12 months - is understood to have acted on a complaint from Bradford council, where senior figures are said to attacked Mr Balmforth's work as detrimental to the city's image and “bad for regeneration”.

His post as “vulnerable persons officer (Asian women)” is partly funded by Bradford social services.

Mr Balmforth's help has been sought by more than 2,000 Bradford women in recent years and he was praised last week by 56 MPs in a Commons early day motion tabled by Keighley's Ann Cryer, a campaigner for ethnic-minority women's welfare.

The motion commended the police “for having the foresight to engage Philip 12 years ago, thus enabling him to give so many young women the right to choose whom and when to marry”.

Mrs Cryer described Mr Balmforth as “a knight in shining armour”.

Most of the victims of forced marriage are taken to Pakistan or Bangladesh to wed someone who is often a first cousin.

Mr Balmforth spoke to the Times newspaper this month after the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into domestic violence found that 33 pupils had vanished from Bradford schools.

He said every UK education authority should be asked how many local children had gone missing. Government inquiries later showed 2,089 pupils aged under 16 had gone missing during the past year in 15 local authorities where forced marriage is seen as a problem.

Jasvinder Sanghera of Karma Nirvana, a charity which helps victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence, said today she was disgusted at the move to sack Mr Balmforth.

“He's fallen victim to people who are more concerned about issues of cultural sensitivity and political correctness than they are about helping vulnerable young women,” she said.

Bradford council declined to comment and a West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the force did not discuss internal disciplinary matters.

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