The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Stephen Watson QPM, has met and personally apologised to three victims of grooming gangs in Rochdale for a catalogue of investigative failings that prevented their abusers from being brought to justice. The abuse of minor female children that occurred in 2008 and 2009 centred around two takeaways in Heywood near Rochdale. But the situation changed and she was raped by one of the men. which was prompted by high profile cases of sexual grooming in towns including Rochdale and Rotherham. "[32], The former head of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "For this particular type of crime, the street grooming of teenage girls in northern towns there is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in the prosecutions for such offences. Cast list: Playbook is told Theresa May, Hunt and Deputy PM Dominic Raab all plan to go to Windsor. Read about our approach to external linking. 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In other words, victims of horrific abuse had been ignored until one of them - the girl who smashed up the takeaway - finally made her story heard. 17 miles | Rochdale, Manchester Features: Front+Back Dual cover,360 protection. He said the investigation was at "an extremely sensitive stage" and street grooming was the force's top priority, "a bigger priority than gun crime". After a troubled upbringing, Amber had been placed on the child protection register as being at risk of sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. I asked Amber what gave her the strength to give evidence to the police, after what she had gone through. Her act of pent-up frustration in the takeaway - followed by her bravery in speaking out - was the first step, a key moment that would lead to questions about the part which racial identity played in sexual grooming of children in the town and in other places up and down the country. 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Furious, Maggie vowed never to be part of such an investigation in future. Pat Hurst, PA. October 26, 2022, 12:21 PM. Nine men were convicted of being part of the child sexual exploitation ring, Nazir Afzal regrets that the CPS dropped the original grooming case, Harry: I always felt different to rest of family, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Canadian grandma helps police snag phone scammer. She told me: Police werent arsed with us, really. 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Greater Manchester Police have arrested a number of suspects involved in historical grooming gang crimes committed against women between 2002 and 2006 in Rochdale, England, one of the country's most notorious grooming gang epicentres. Case studies 41. A group of twenty men were found guilty in October 2018 of running a child grooming gang in Huddersfield, with the men being convicted of 120 offences against 15 different girls. [23], In March 2015, ten men aged between 26 and 45 were charged with serious sex offences against seven females aged between 13 and 23 at the time. However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending. How long have Keir Starmer and Sue Gray been secretly cooking up their plot? At best this was distracting for leaders and influenced the areas that resources were focused on". Three Girls: Maggie Oliver says known paedophiles are still abusing girls in Rochdale and authorities are 'more interested in covering up mistakes', according to one officer who was involved. Between 2003 and 2014, Rowbotham made more than 180 attempts to alert police and social services but was told the witnesses were not reliable. In some cases those girls were raped callously, viciously and violently. When we met in a hotel in Rochdale last month, Amber was accompanied by Maggie Oliver, a former police detective who walked out of the job in protest at the way Amber had been treated. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. She continued to receive phone calls from her abusers, and cars with drivers she recognised were parking outside. [14] The CPS's original decision was overturned in 2011 when a new chief prosecutor for the region, Nazir Afzal, a first generation British-Pakistani,[15] was appointed. [1] The abusers paid small sums of money for the encounters. Part of HuffPost News. Girls aged between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gang. Running though them is repeated mentions of the fact that many in authority believed that the girls had brought the abuse on themselves. The grooming and subsequent abuse - which centred around the town of Heywood - began when the woman, now aged 19, was a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The BBC reports Kabeer Hassan, then 25, of Oldham, was sentenced to nine years for rape and three years, concurrently, for the conspiracy conviction. In 2012 nine men were jailed for their part in a child sexual exploitation ring in Rochdale. Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet Amber was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will never end. Most of you were many years older than they were. "[2][11] Shabir Ahmed's threatening behaviour and calling Judge Gerald Clifton a "racist bastard" resulted in him being banned from the court for the sentencing hearing. The abuse continued for months, until one evening she was arrested by police for smashing the counter at a takeaway where some of the men met the girls. A chance to stop the gang was missed in 2008 and both the police and the CPS were forced to apologise for their failings. Even though she had been a victim, she was accused of being involved in the grooming. It was outrageous. 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One example mentioned was the issue of child protection for one of the victims, which was discussed in 40 meetings, without any record of police attendance. Find a Job Later, Rochdale sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham told an inquiry that all the girls had been treated appallingly by protective services. 2023 BBC. On one of those interviews a police officer can be heard yawning while repeatedly asking why she had put herself in such a vulnerable position. And then, in July 2009, an experienced CPS lawyer ruled the victim was not credible and decided that the two men who raped her should be released without charge. said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. It is committed by abusers from all walks of life, ethnicities, cultures and classes and it robs children of their childhoods and tears families apart. A significant proportion of cases were labelled as no further action needed and the leadership team were not interested in childrens social care. In 2009, when Amber was 16, uniformed officers arrived at her mothers house, arrested her and took her to the police station. Nine men of mainly Pakistani heritage were convicted in 2012 after a long, complex trial for offences that happened in and around Rochdale in 2008 and 2009. This kind of institutional neglect of a whole sector of society must never happen again and we need programmes like Three Girls to remind us.. "[45], In May 2017, the BBC broadcast Three Girls, a miniseries about the case. The women, who cannot be named for legal reasons, met Chief Constable Stephen Watson to be given the apology for police failings. "[29] Cryer had attempted to reach the Muslim community and persuade it to take action: "I went to a friend of mine, who was a local councillor and happened to be a Muslim and therefore able to represent me to the elders, because I thought it was a good move to try to get those elders involved. Operation Span was the investigation launched in December 2009 into allegations made against the individuals who were convicted in 2012, and others. Molly Windsor, Liv Hill and Ria Zmitrowicz feature as a trio of girls drawn into the frightening world of sexual exploitation. The BBC drama Three Girls was based on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal. [41][42][43], Two of the convicted gang members worked at Eagle Taxis, which was taken over by Car 2000 after the scandal. The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England.Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012. The abuse took place in Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, in the early 2000s. Read about our approach to external linking. Despite one victim going to the police in 2008 to report the child grooming, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute two men, invoking the witness's lack of credibility. "[39], Nazir Afzal, who as the newly appointed chief crown prosecutor decided to bring the case to trial, said that sex, not race, was the key issue: "There is no community where women and girls are not vulnerable to sexual attack and that's a fact. The report also showed that more than 3,000 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in Greater Manchester in 2014. Writing for HuffPost UK, chief executive Javed Khan of childrens charity Barnardos described Three Girls as absolutely vital viewing.. Exact date yellow weather warning for snow and ice forecast to hit UK - will you be affected? You have only got my kind here. She later went on to positively identify a number of offenders, which enabled charges to be brought against them all. I didnt want other people to feel how I felt. Her courage and Olivers support resulted in a database of abusers whom she identified by names, car registrations, telephone numbers and addresses. The investigation was suddenly scrapped with no-one arrested or charged. Oliver had been headhunted to join the grooming gangs case as detective and victim liaison officer in 2010 because of her experience working with vulnerable victims. This resulted in Greater Manchester Police launching Operation Doublet to investigate further claims of abuse with . Although a court order prevented her being named, everyone in her local community knew who she was. One of the victims given the fictitious name Amber in Three Girls, the BBC One drama about the abuse was 14 when she was targeted by gang members. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. [13], As a result of the CPS dropping the case, the police halted their investigation, which was resumed when a second girl made complaints of a similar nature in December 2009. History was repeating itself, said Maggie. Khan and Rauf claim deportation would interfere with their human rights. Even when the authorities did recognise the problem, their slow reaction allowed the abusers to carry on exploiting their victims for years. It took police 11 months to compile a file of evidence for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after interviewing the young victim from the takeaway on four separate occasions. Officers on the Rochdale division were under pressure at the time to hit volume crime targets like bringing down the number of burglaries and were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the grooming problem they had uncovered. Police seized the foetus as evidence, but she was not notified, nor was her mother or any responsible adult. After having been appointed head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in November 2008, Sir Keir's half decade in the position oversaw cases as large and polarising as the Rochdale grooming . Vulnerable children some as young as 11 were targeted by child abusers in the town of Telford, Shropshire, over 40 years. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. Their trial heard how young girls were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops, and were ferried to different flats in taxis where further abuse took place, sometimes with cash changing hands. Abdul Aziz received a similar sentence: nine years (concurrently) for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. It made me sick to my stomach. [53], On 13 March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. Rochdale grooming gang: Wrong to deport members, tribunal told 27 June 2022 GMP Adil Khan (left) and Qari Rauf (right) were jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of serious child sex offences A. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown. But their nightmare was only just beginning . She was later burnt repeatedly with a heated spoon when she refused to comply with the demands of a group of men, but was accused by police of inflicting the wounds on herself and arrested for disorderly behaviour.