HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN ABUSED BY A GROOMING NETWORK WERE FAILED
A damning report examining the handling of Rochdale’s grooming gangs has published previously unknown details, which show that Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council grossly failed in their duty to protect victims and pursue predators.
The review –commissioned in 2017, and covering failings between 2004-2013 – produced a 173-page report in January, detailing abuse and highlighting multiple local authorities’ “indifference” to the plight of hundreds of children. Among its findings were cases where credible evidence was not investigated, and girls being “left at the mercy” of paedophiles. It also identified 96 men still deemed adanger to children –anumber it states is just asmall portion of those involved. It all makes for horrifying reading –one victim described children being kept in cages and made to bark like dogs, while another case describes how avictim identified only as Child 44 became pregnant by her abuser. She had an abortion and, without her knowledge or consent, the foetus was removed for DNA testing. Her abusers were jailed, but unaware that one of them had been freed, she was confronted by him in alocal supermarket. In response to the findings, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said, “This report is hard to read… Ihave asked Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council to ensure every possible action is taken to follow up any leads and to pursue any potential perpetrators.” But his call to action will likely come as little comfort to the victims and those involved in exposing the scandal.
Former detective Maggie Oliver criticised the systemic failings she says are still abundant. She quit the Greater Manchester Police in disgust over their handling of the scandal, before exposing their failings. She now works as asex abuse campaigner and set up the Maggie Oliver Foundation, which currently supports over 371 victims who she says are “still being failed by the GMP”. She said, “The failures that happened then are still happening now… We do not have asystem that supports victims and listens to their voices. When they do challenge the system, the organisation closes ranks.” Urging achange in policy and sentencing, she called for an investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.
Sara Rowbotham, aformer healthcare worker employed by Rochdale’s Crisis Intervention Team at the time of the scandal, also turned whistleblower. Now working as acouncillor, Sara had tirelessly compiled names and addresses of abusers, and said it was “disgusting” th
