Former Times chief investigative reporter Andrew Norfolk has been remembered as a courageous journalist who exposed uncomfortable truths and achieved a measure of justice for some of the most neglected and abused members of society.
Following his death this week aged 60 The Times said in its leader column: “Journalism, the saying goes, exists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. None did either with such fearlessness as Andrew Norfolk.” He retired from The Times in November last year after suffering from ill health.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer credited Norfolk with helping to change the guidelines on prosecutions of grooming gang members to “increase convictions of the vile perpetrators”.
Norfolk’s work also led to a national action plan on sexual exploitation and to the authorities finally addressing the widespread issue of gangs of men with Pakistani heritage grooming and abusing young white girls.
His investigation initially met with a “wall of silence” from police forces who had ignored complaints from victims and their families.
After an initial investigation was published in 2011, Times editor James Harding told Norfolk that the story would be his full-time job “until we are satisfied that every public body in England has the knowledge and systems in place to protect children and prosecute offenders”.
Harding told Press Gazette this week: “Andrew’s great qualities as a journalist were empathy and humility, tenacity and courage. He felt for the people he wrote about and he listened thoughtfully.
“I remember he spent weeks in court for one case, which fell through and none of it could be reported. He carried on. His reporting into grooming gangs was unwelcome and uncomfortable. He faced vile abuse and violent threats.
“The exposure to so many horrific cases of manipulation, rape and assault was gruelling. Through it all, he was selfless and softly spoken – except on the page, where he made it impossible to neglect voices that had for years gone unheard.”
He exposed an ‘appalling, unpalatable and almost unbelievable scandal’
The judges said: “It was a local story which exposed an appalling, unpalatable and almost unbelievable scandal. Norfolk and The Times refused to give up until the child grooming gangs were exposed and the problem was addressed at a national level.
“It was an investigation which began with a front page story in January 2011 and culminated in the Jay report published in August this year which revealed council and law enforcement failures which contributed to 1,400 children being abused in Rotherham alone.
“It has been journalism which has made a difference, which gave a voice to people who no-one was listening to and which proved that sometimes journalists can step in when police, local and central government have all failed.”
Whistleblowers thank Norfolk for giving them a voice
Grooming gang victim and survivor Sammy Woodhouse described Norfolk on X as “a man who helped change history”.
She said: “Andrew wasn’t just a journalist; he was a man of integrity and compassion who supported me through the darkest moments of my life. We went on to expose many government agencies togetherincluding in 2018, when Rotherham Council and the family courts invited my rapist to apply for custody of my son. Andrew was the only person I trusted to share my son’s story with and to expose the government for allowing it to happen. This was happening to women across the UK, and he helped me shine a light on it.
“We stood side by side through many investigations, challenging the systems that failed the most vulnerable. Andrew didn’t just report, he gave survivors a voice and forced institutions to face the truth.
“Rest in piece Andrew. Your legacy lives on: in every child protected, every victim heard, and every injustice brought to light.”
Former Home Office whistleblower Adele Gladman was another source who helped Norfolk expose the grooming scandal.
Writing on Linkedin she said: “He was one of the few people that I trusted to tell my story to, and was instrumental in getting me before the Home Affairs Select Committee, which then led on to the independent reports from Alexis Jay and Baroness Louise Casey…
“For my part, he was a true gentleman who genuinely cared about the people behind the stories he worked on. The cost to him in exposing the horror of child sexual exploitation across the country (as well as the professional negligence in allowing the abuse to continue) was considerable.”
Attacked for doing his job
London Daily Digital editor Azeez Anusudhin shared a Times front-page byline with Norfolk in 2019 and helped him with his investigations in northern towns. He told Press Gazette: “Andrew was meticulous. Every statement had to be precise, accurate, and complete — leaving no room for a defence lawyer to twist the truth. Statement after statement. Victim after victim. He would often pause, silently regaining composure as the trauma weighed on him.
“I saw him argue, sometimes almost swear, at police officers when they failed to protect crucial evidence. South Yorkshire Police, known for their poor record-keeping, often bore the brunt of his frustration. He never hesitated to call them out for dereliction of duty. His ground-breaking Rotherham investigation redefined what it means to be a journalist: how stories, if pursued with honesty and rigour, can reboot communities and protect the vulnerable. But he paid a price. He was attacked by some quarters simply for doing his job. I remember him showing me broken window panes, stoned, to send a message.
“As an Indian-origin journalist, seeing your byline on the front page of The Times is the stuff of dreams. Very few, like Karan Thapar, have ever had that honour. I usually preferred using a pen name for my investigative work. But Andrew broke that rule. On 1 March, 2019, he insisted that we should share the byline for the story that triggered the downfall of Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham. I was humbled.
“I saw how the accusations and abuses affected him. He showed me the threatening messages, and even a PDF of a publication accusing him of racism. It hurt him deeply. But he remained committed, determined to make communities safer. Beyond the grooming gang stories, he was also deeply concerned about the rise of extremism and terrorism. But time, resources, and declining health were against him.”
Norfolk raised reputation of UK journalism when it was at a low ebb
Former Sunday Mirror chief reporter Matthew Drake, now a senior producer on Good Morning Britain, recalled Norfolk’s acceptance speeches at the Society of Editors Press Awards and British Journalism Awards in 2014 at a time when the reputation of UK journalism was at a low-ebb in the wake of the hacking scandal. Some 67 journalists were arrested and/or charged from 2011 onwards with many standing trial in 2014 over payments to public officials for stories.
He said: “On each occasion he delivered the most eloquent, haunting and self-deprecating acceptance speech. It was on behalf of those whose trust he had gained amid the darkness of their plight. It was for the victims who found the courage to speak up and drag the whole wretched scandal into the light.
“On both occasions – despite gallons of drink having been taken by the chattering guests in the audience – you could have heard a mouse sneeze as he recounted those tortured moments when the stories were being denied and the legal letters were flying in. In the end of course, through tenacity, endeavour and skill he broke the stories and the floodgates opened. For a moment there was a collective realisation that real journalism still mattered.”
Speaking to Press Gazette at the time Norfolk said: “This is a time when journalism as almost never before is in the dock, literally in some cases, showing that public interest journalism is done for the public good – because the public has a right and needs to know stuff that authorities are choosing to keep secret – has a role that is more important today than it has ever been.”
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