Police in Rotherham were criticised yesterday for the “thuggish and insensitive” arrest of a woman who confronted the man she has accused of grooming, beating and pimping her when she was a child.

Officers who restrained and handcuffed the 28-year-old woman last week on suspicion of a “racially aggravated offence” did not realise that specialist police hoped to interview her as a victim of serious sexual offences.