THE police chief who ran the local force at the time of a widespread child sex abuse scandal in Rotherham has insisted he had "no idea" it was going on and is "embarrassed" at the failure to act to stop it.

Ex-South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd John Hughes told MPs he was "distressed" that he had not been made aware of the problem and that he felt "sick" when he read reports into it over recent days.

But he was rebuked by the chair of the Commons home affairs committee Keith Vaz who told him his denials were "impossible to believe" in the face of "evidence of the most compelling nature" to the contrary and that he had "signally failed" victims.

A devastating official inquiry found that at least 1,400 young people in Rotherham had been subjected to sexual abuse over 16 years and it emerged yesterday that 25 further alleged victims have come forward following its publication.

Mr Hughes told the committee that he had not seen three of four reports being examined by their inquiry until recent days.

He acknowledged that he had "signally failed the victims" in Rotherham.

He said: "This is not something that I would have turned a blind eye to, nor something I would have wilfully ignored.

"I take no pleasure from this. I have had a 32-year police career and, yet on this issue I have signally failed the victims of these criminals and it hurts."