Police left children at mercy of grooming gangs in Rochdale, review finds

Girls were "left at the mercy" of paedophile grooming gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses, a report has said.

The review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out a series of failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

It also highlights the apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters identified as potential victims of Asian men.

GMP has apologised and said such cases were handled very differently now.

The report also identifies 96 men still deemed a potential risk to children, adding that this was "only a proportion" of the numbers involved in the abuse.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has since called for disciplinary action to be taken against police officers and council officials who "failed in their duties" as well as some prosecutors in the North West.

He also praised whistleblowers, including health worker Sara Rowbotham and former GMP detective Maggie Oliver, who raised concerns despite facing vocal criticism from authorities.

In 2007, Ms Rowbotham and her team had alerted GMP and Rochdale Council about a gang of men of Pakistani and Afghan heritage engaged in child sexual exploitation (CSE) while Ms Oliver resigned from GMP in 2012 to publicly reveal the extent of the police failings.

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Mr Burnham commissioned a series of independent reviews following the 2017 BBC documentary The Betrayed Girls, which highlighted repeated failures to protect children in the region.

One child victim, known as Amber, gave "significant evidence", but the crimes were not recorded by GMP and perpetrators were potentially left to continue their abuse of other children, the report found.

Amber was even described as a co-conspirator in the sexual exploitation of other children in one trial without her knowledge - an allegation which she always denied and was unable to defend herself against.

Mayor Andy Burnham said victims had been badly failed

The review, which focuses on 111 cases in Rochdale from 2004 to 2013, also concluded:

• Compelling evidence of widespread organised sexual exploitation of children

• Statutory agencies failed to respond appropriately

• The threat of CSE was not addressed between 2004 and 2007

• The probability that at least 74 children were being sexually exploited - and in 48 of those cases there were serious failures to protect the child

• CSE was a low priority and under-resourced by GMP

It also found concerns raised by Ms Rowbotham and Ms Oliver were "substantiated".

'Lone voices'

The review's author Malcolm Newsam said: "During the period covered by this review, GMP and Rochdale Council failed to prioritise the protection of children who were being sexually exploited by a significant number of men within the Rochdale area.

"For several years, Sara Rowbotham and her colleagues were lone voices in raising concerns about the sexual exploitation and abuse of these children."

He said successive police operations during the period were "insufficiently resourced".

Consequently he said children were "left at risk and many of their abusers to this day have not been apprehended".

Former detective Maggie Oliver resigned from GMP to expose the force's mistakes

Mr Burnham described the results of the review as "distressing".

Addressing the victims directly, he said: "We are sorry that you were so badly failed by the system that should have protected you."

He added: "It is only by facing up fully and unflinchingly to what happened that we can be sure of bringing the whole system culture change needed when it comes to protecting children from abuse."

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Leaders at Rochdale Council and GMP repeated previous apologies, with council leader Neil Emmott saying: "I want to reassure the public that those responsible are gone and long gone.

"Rochdale was already investigating these historical cases when the mayor's review began in 2017 and a number are still ongoing, and we want to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice."

Chief Constable Stephen Watson said the handling of CSE across Greater Manchester had been "overhauled since the early-2000s to ensure that victims and survivors are cared for and receive the expected level of service".

The force said no staff were currently under investigation in relation to non-recent CSE in Rochdale.

However, GMP added the force's professional standards directorate was continually assessing any materials which was referred into them.

Children 'criminalised'

The report's authors highlighted a "significant number of successful convictions" had been made in recent years.

However, these related to only 13 of the 74 children believed to have been sexually exploited, which they described as a "very small proportion".

Ms Rowbotham said: "Children were being raped every day. Both the police and Rochdale children services told me and kept telling me, it was nothing to do with them."

"Everything being done now, should have been done then. All it would have taken is the right people actually giving a damn."

Ms Oliver said she was filled with "so many mixed emotions" after 10 years of "fighting for the truth".

"My overriding emotion though is one of anger," she said.

"I am angry that not one senior officer or official has ever been held individually responsible for these failures, lies and cover ups."

She said she was "extremely thankful that the Rochdale survivors have, once again, had it formally acknowledged that their treatment was wrong on so many levels, although for many this is too little, too late".

Ms Oliver added police had "failed generations of children".

She said: "What is happening now is still woefully, woefully inadequate in dealing with these kinds of crimes and the fact that they do not deal with them correctly means that the abusers are still confident that the chances of them being arrested, prosecuted, convicted are so tiny that it is worth taking the chance."

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, assistance can be found on the BBC Action Line website.

Timeline

• 2007 - Ms Rowbotham and her team alerted GMP and Rochdale Council about a gang of men of Pakistani and Afghan heritage engaged in CSE, who also used children for their illegal drug deals. GMP and Rochdale Council chose not to progress any investigation into these men", according to the review.

• 2008 - A girl who was arrested on suspicion of damaging a takeaway said she had been raped and sexually assaulted by its staff. An investigation failed to bring any charges but identified widespread CSE by at least 30 adults. Another child later gave evidence about sexual abuse at the same venues, but the detective responsible failed to focus on her account and there was insufficient effort to identify the rapist.

• 2010 - More than two years after first being told of abuse centred on two takeaway restaurants, GMP launched Operation Span

• 2012 - Nine men who ran a CSE ring were consequently convicted and jailed for offences including rape. The trial heard girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls. Both the Crown Prosecution Service and GMP apologised for their failures after the conviction.

GMP have since launched further investigations, which have so far resulted in the conviction of 42 men involved in the abuse of 13 children with more trials scheduled for later this year.

The report disagreed with GMP's description in 2012 of the investigation at the time being "comprehensive and effective, mitigating threat risk and harm".

It said the case was "a relatively limited offender-focused investigation that primarily addressed a small number of perpetrators who had not been prosecuted following the earlier disclosures in 2008".

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it would carry out its own review of the report and would inform GMP "if we identify anything we believe needs to be referred".

"No child should have to experience, or fear, abuse of any kind," a spokesman said.

"It is so important for policing to listen to those who have bravely spoken about their experiences, and to ensure lessons are learned from past mistakes."

He said "everyone in policing" had a role to play in ensuring survivors get the support they need.

The review also highlighted that Ms Rowbotham and her team were "explicitly criticised" for not following child protection procedures and for not communicating appropriately with other agencies in two serious case reviews by Rochdale Local Safeguarding Children's Board in 2013.

The serious case reviews focussed on different agencies' roles with regard to seven children, who were subject to serious and prolonged child sexual exploitation.

However, more than a year before the publication of those two reports, the multi-agency CSE group, chaired by GMP, were made aware of 127 potential victims referred by Ms Rowbotham's team that had not been acted upon.

Three months before the reviews were published in December 2013, the list had grown to 260 potential victims.

Mr Newsam said that Ms Rowbotham was "unfairly criticised" by both serious case reviews.