Andrew Mark Norfolk (born c. 1965) is a British journalist and chief investigative reporter for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. Norfolk became known in 2011 for his reporting on the

Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consisted of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until the 2010s and the failure of local authorities to a ...

and other cases of on-street child grooming. He won both the

Paul Foot Award The Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by ''The Guardian'' and ''Private Eye'' in memory of the journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004. The award, from 2005 to 2014, was for material published in ...

and

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...

for his work, and was named 2014 Journalist of the Year. __TOC__

Early life and education

After attending

Kent College ) , established = 1885 , closed = , type = Public SchoolIndependent day and boarding school , religious_affiliation = Methodist , president = , head_label = , hea ...

, Canterbury, and

Ashville College Ashville College is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils aged 2–18 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1877 as a boarding school for boys by the United Methodist Free Churches. It incorp ...

, Harrogate, both independent schools, Norfolk studied English at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

, where he was sports editor of '' Palatinate'', the university newspaper. He also represented the university at

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

and was a substitute in the 1985 University Athletic Union final against

Exeter University , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

. A member of

Hild Bede College Hild or Hildr may refer to: * Hildr or Hild is one of the Valkyries in Norse mythology, a personification of battle * Hild or Hilda of Whitby is a Christian saint who was a British abbess and nun in the Middle Ages * Hild (Oh My Goddess!), the ult ...

, Norfolk graduated in 1987.

Career

After graduating, Norfolk worked as a reporter with the '' Scarborough Evening News'' in 1989, where he was a

National Union of Journalists The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Structure There i ...

rep. He became a reporter for the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' in 1995, a reporter for ''The Times'' in 2000, north-east correspondent for ''The Times'' in 2002, and the newspaper's chief investigative reporter in 2012. In 2010 Norfolk began investigating the on-street grooming of girls in

the Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

and

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

, largely by British-Pakistani men, and from January 2011 he produced a series of reports that triggered several formal inquiries. As a result of this work, he won the

for investigative journalism in February 2013; the judges said his stories had "prompted two government-ordered inquiries, a parliamentary inquiry and a new national action plan on child sexual exploitation". In May that year, he shared the

with Tom Bergin of Reuters, and in December 2014 he was named Journalist of the Year by the British Journalism Awards. In August 2017 ''The Times'' published an article by Norfolk headlined "Christian child forced into Muslim foster care" about a foster placement in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

. The borough council complained to the

Independent Press Standards Organisation The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is the regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. It was established on 8 September 2014 after the windup of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which had been the main ind ...

(IPSO), which ruled that the story was riddled with inaccuracies. IPSO required ''The Times'' to run the ruling in the front page of its print edition and in its online edition. Norfolk has since said that with hindsight, he would not write the story again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norfolk, Andrew People educated at Ashville College Living people The Times journalists Year of birth missing (living people) English journalists British investigative journalists Alumni of the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham