I'm only a kid - why is it always me? Nine men have been convicted of sexually exploiting young girls in Greater Manchester. Amber was understandably reluctant to trust the police. Must demonstrate independence and competence in the duties on a variety of procedures. On 9 May 2012, the Rochdale grooming trial reached its conclusion. The trial of nine of the grooming gang was pending, and in the meantime, despite never having been informed, arrested or cautioned, Amber was added to the indictment by the CPS as a co-conspirator. RN Case Manager - Case Management at Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance Hospital $20,000 hiring bonus for eligible external hires that meet required qualifications and conditions for payment One delivered a takeaway to my house a few weeks back, she tells me. A new investigation, dubbed Operation Span, was launched. The company's owner said that due to requests, clients could choose to have a white driver but this was reversed after 50 Asian drivers protested. It was not until summer 2011 that Nazir Afzal, the new regional head of the CPS, reversed the decision not to prosecute. Speaking before the airing of a new BBC1 drama, Three Girls - which tells the story of three victims in the 2012 Rochdale sex grooming case - Margaret Oliver said police had still not learned. This eventually led to the successful prosecution of nine men for offences included rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Ten months after her case had been dropped, police decided to revisit the case after more complaints emerged. Cockbain and Brayley expressed concern that "findings were being overextended from a small, geographically concentrated sample to characterise an entire crime type". Speaking to BBC Five Live, Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, denied his officers had failed to investigate allegations of rape made by underage girls before a decision was taken not to prosecute in 2008. The dramatisation tells the story of three children who were victims in the scandal and stars Maxine Peake as sexual health worker Sara, who recorded and reported cases of child abuse for years. When police were called to a report of a 15-year-old girl smashing up the Balti House takeaway in Heywood, they had no idea that the crime they had. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. But when she was just 12, she was groomed and sexually abused by gangs of adult men. "[45], In May 2017, the BBC broadcast Three Girls, a miniseries about the case. Amber had, under pressure from the abusers, taken some of her friends to the takeaway where the ringleaders operated from. Sign up and we will email you daily with the best of our political and news coverage while also giving you a taste of our most-popular lifestyle, opinion and personal blogs. "Lessons must be learnt from this report and measures implemented to ensure no other vulnerable children are treated as at fault. Read about our approach to external linking. [25] Furthermore, The Times article alleged: "with the exception of one town there is scant evidence of work being undertaken in British Pakistani communities to confront the problem" of "pimping gangs" largely consisting of "members of the British Pakistani community". "That can't make sense.". The review recommended a "speedy resolution" to leadership failures. "I was scared telling them, because I didn't know what the consequences would be from the men. Two worked for the same taxi firm and another two worked at a takeaway restaurant; some came from the same village in Pakistan and another two men shared a flat. After the trials conclusion, there were public apologies from the police, the council and prosecutors for failing the victims. Following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, nine men were convicted in May 2012. 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. The scandal shocked the nation - and helped change the way the criminal justice system treats victims of grooming. Rochdale grooming gang members could be deported to Pakistan; . The inspector concluded the abuse could have stopped if the authorities had stepped in sooner. The mayor's office. Last May. "The biggest issue to come out of this report is that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were effectively discriminating against poor, white, working-class girls, so that's not about a failure to spot abuse, that is about actively ignoring abuse that was going on when it was brought to their attention," he said. She was being raped. 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. NINE men who ran the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were eventually jailed for a string of offences in 2012. The victims were coerced and bribed into keeping quiet about the abuse by a combination of alcohol and drugs, food, small sums of money and other gifts. They ripped away all my dignity". The investigation slowly built a compelling case, away from the public gaze. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Their treatment encompasses a range of catastrophic errors in one of the countrys most harrowing child sexual abuse scandals. The report came on the same day five men were jailed for grooming a teenage girl. When police arrived, she says they did not believe her version of events. "[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. Just before the due date of her second baby, she was called to the family court, where an application was made to remove both children on the grounds that Amber was an abuser and a danger to children. "Why have I still got a criminal record? The men who abused her have never been prosecuted. There was a string of different inquiries into what went wrong. [7] A former Detective Constable who was investigating the grooming gangs, Margaret Oliver, resigned in 2012 in disgust of the handling of the cases by the police force and spoke out as a whistleblower to inform the public. The woman now wants her story to be told to help people spot the signs of grooming, which she describes as "a common thing that not enough people know about". [53], On 13 March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. After a while, the girl was being driven to different houses or flats where there would be other men waiting. [36], In a BBC documentary investigating grooming young girls for sex by some Pakistani men, Imam Irfan Chishti from the Rochdale Council of Mosques deplored the practice, saying it was "very shocking to see fellow British Muslims brought to court for this kind of horrific offence. said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. It was only when she met Oliver in early 2012 that things started to change. I never thought that they would do what they did to me, because you don't think that would happen.". Instead of being seen as a victim, Daisy was arrested and prosecuted for offences - many directly linked to the abuse she was suffering. That nightmare should have ended with the arrest and trial of the perpetrators, but instead the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and even social services treated her not as a victim but as a perpetrator. [25][26][27] A report by the deputy children's commissioner in 2012 said that 33% of child sex abuse by gangs in Britain was committed by British Asians, where Asians are 7% of the population, but concluded that it was "irresponsible" to dwell on the data. Now they werent prepared to do that. "It will always be there, but I know how to deal with it," she said. Why the Rochdale 'grooming trial' wasn't about race Focusing on the ethnicity of the men convicted of child sex offences in Rochdale detracts from the real issue: this was ultimately about. [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. It was then she told police for the first time what was going on. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. [7] Actress Lesley Sharp played the police detective Margaret Oliver in the series. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the woman, who cannot be identified, said she was forced to have sex with up to five different men in a day, at least four times a week. I think it was because they were afraid of being called racist. And Ive done nothing wrong I was a victim of these men at the age of 14. But the consequences of what happened to her are still preventing her from moving on with her life. [32], In 2011, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre launched a five-month long investigation into whether there was a link between racial profile and the crime of underage grooming. But when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reviewed the case in summer 2009, it was decided that the girl "would not be viewed as a credible witness" - a decision not appealed against by GMP - and no prosecution was brought. She had a knack of speaking on a human level to estate kids and she was head-hunted by her bosses to persuade them to give evidence in the trial despite the woeful original investigation. 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. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) investigated Kabeer Hassan and another man, aged 59. File on 4 - Groomed, abused and put in prison: Rochdale's untold story will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 14 July at 20:00 BST and repeated on Sunday 19 July at 17:00 BST. What about them? She told me: So it didnt happen to anybody else. He said: "It creates a culture of hopelessness, where the police officers think 'what's the point? [2][3][4] The men were British Pakistanis, which led to discussion on whether the failure to investigate them was linked to the authorities' fear of being accused of racial prejudice. [47] However this report was "fiercely" criticised for its unscientific nature and poor methodology by child sexual exploitation experts Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, in their paper "Failing Victims, Fuelling Hate: Challenging the Harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' Narrative" which was published in January 2020. 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. Copley said: "We apologise to the victims and we give them our assurance that lessons have been learned, changes have been made and we are determined to use this to continue making improvements. Not just once - but repeatedly - by a gang of men who would ply her with vodka and threaten her with violence unless she succumbed to horrific abuse. "[35] By May 2012, according to The Independent, Crop had "gone suddenly silent" concerning the percentage of abusers of Asian origin who had come to the organisation's attention: Willmer explained to the paper: "We've been accused of being a cover for the BNP". "Even though I was kicking and screaming in the back [of the police van] saying 'he's hit me or he's raped me', I was always the one that got arrested. It formed a large part of the police investigation that became known as Operation Span. They were overlooked, they were discriminated against.. "[37][38] Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, accused elders of the Pakistani community of "burying their heads in the sand" on the matter of sexual grooming. "[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. Without Ambers initial evidence there might never have been a trial at all. He said that of convictions involving child sexual exploitation, 87% were of British Pakistani men and it was a significant problem for that community. Afterwards, she told me: I went home, put it to the back of my mind to be honest. Police and social workers failed the girls who were "passed around for sex" by a gang of men, it said. A June 2008 report to Rochdale safeguarding children board had identified 50 children at risk of sexual exploitation. The arrests are in relation to one of the five girls who gave evidence at Liverpool Crown Court in the case of a child sex grooming ring in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. 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. A chance to stop the gang was missed in 2008 and both the police and the CPS were forced to apologise for their failings. [1] Forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation during the police investigation. She told me: It wasnt like a forced thing. [46], The Rochdale case was one of several cases which prompted investigations looking into the claim that "the majority of the perpetrators have been British Pakistani"; the first was by Quilliam in December 2017, which released a report entitled "Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation Dissecting Grooming Gangs", which claimed 84% of offenders were of South Asian heritage. She gave the police a list, at an early stage of Operation Span, with nicknames, telephone numbers and other details relating to offenders. In 2014 an inquiry led by MP Ann Coffey suggested sexual exploitation of children had become normal on some streets and estates in Greater Manchester. The Rochdale case was one of several cases which prompted investigations looking into the claim that "the majority of the perpetrators have been British Pakistani"; the first was by Quilliam in December 2017, which released a report entitled "Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation - Dissecting Grooming Gangs", which claimed 84% of offenders were ", He added that significant improvements had been made to the way child sexual exploitation is investigated and encouraged anyone with any concerns to please get in touch. [35] "The citations are correct but they have been taken out of context," Cockbain told The Independent; "Nor do they acknowledge the small sample size of the original research, which focused on just two large cases." The alleged offences that took place in Rochdale between 2005 and 2013 included rape, conspiracy to rape, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual activity with a child, and sexual assault. FA Cup quarter-final draw in full as Manchester United and Man City discover opponents, Four Premier League sides remain in the competition, Manchester United vs West Ham LIVE highlights and reaction from FA Cup as Garnacho scores. They werent bothered when youre from a shit home. The convictions she received as a teen continue to hold her back to this day. Greater Manchester Police has been accused of 'blanking' three Rochdale grooming victims who have been trying to progress legal action against the force for over 18 months. There were fears that press involvement would frighten the girls away. [45] In particular they pointed out that the inquiry by the Office of the Children's Commissioner[33] found that, while a majority of victims were white and a majority of perpetrators were men of South Asian descent, there were many cases where "perpetrators and their victims were ethnically diverse. Adil Khan was sentenced to eight years for the same offences. Id been used. It was unfortunate that it was about attitudes towards teenagers. [17], Victims were physically assaulted and raped by as many as five men at a time,[1] or obliged to have sex with "several men in a day, several times a week". Why has nothing happened to these men? [8], Some gang members told the court the girls were willing participants and happy having sex with the men. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. "I know they believed me, they said to me at the end that something should have been done.". In 2019, Amber, along with two other victims, with the help of the Centre for Womens Justice, issued a civil claim for damages against GMP and the director of public prosecutions (DPP). An independent report commissioned by Rochdale council said three employees had spoken of victims making life choices rather than being rape victims. Police began to investigate child grooming in Rochdale almost by accident. Man United beat West Ham in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday and we'll bring you live reaction from the match. The report also showed that more than 3,000 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in Greater Manchester in 2014. The three-part series tells the story of the victims of an infamous child grooming and sex trafficking scandal in Rochdale, and continues on Wednesday night. [48][49], A further investigation was carried out by the British government in December 2020, when the Home Office published their findings, showing that the majority of child sexual exploitation gangs were, in fact, composed of white men and not British Pakistani men.[50][51]. While GMP has finally settled the claim, which includes the personal apology from the chief constable, the DPP has so far resisted. Also cited were a lack of managerial oversight in 2008 and 2009 and lack of resources and managerial support for the investigations despite formal requests. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Maggie spent six months speaking to the victims from Rochdale and persuaded them to give evidence. UK News US News World News Weird News Real Life More Hopeful TeamDogs In Your Area. "At first I felt really bad, dirty and ashamed. By then police were investigating allegations from another girl about on-street grooming in Heywood. Girls aged between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gang. Actress Maxine Peake starred in the series as Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health aid worker who first uncovered the patterns of severe abuse in the area, but struggled to bring it to the attention of authorities. She told me: Police werent arsed with us, really. Full-Time. This vulnerable girl had been failed.. 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. I felt sick, got upset nothing never no one from police came to me to explain why I was no longer going to court. When police were called to a report of a 15-year-old girl smashing up the Balti House takeaway in Heywood, they had no idea that the crime they had uncovered would become a national scandal. In relation to historical failures, he apologised to Daisy. A much bigger case had been built but, importantly, he simply believed his star witness. At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet Amber was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will never end. 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But in court, she was portrayed by the prosecution and defence as an assistant pimp. In May 2012, nine men from Rochdale were convicted and jailed for grooming girls with alcohol, drugs and gifts before forcing them to have sex with multiple men. [19] "[40], Hindu and Sikh groups have objected to media use of the "Asian" description saying that the culprits were "almost always of Pakistani origin" and "Muslim". [9] The men were aged between 24-59 and all knew each other. [2] One gang member convicted of sex trafficking was a religious studies teacher at a mosque and a married father of five. Who were the men in the Rochdale grooming gang and what happened to them? Career Track: Leadership. A serious case review by the Rochdale. There was a complete lack of understanding of the world in which they existed. [6] Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health worker who first recognised patterns of child abuse in the community and fought to bring these crimes to police attention, was made redundant in 2014. The picture which emerged was one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, who were being targeted for sexual abuse and written off by authorities who believed the girls were making their own choices. Some of the men involved were arrested, tried and found guilty. I trusted police that I would be helped this time. During that period, Amber by now pregnant and living in a one-room flat continued to be targeted by the grooming gangs. A ringleader of a grooming gang has avoided being deported so it would therefore be wrong to deport two other gang members, a tribunal has heard. As a responsible publication the M.E.Ns editors respected this request from senior detectives at GMP and eventually our story was published a few months later. One 13-year-old victim became pregnant and had an abortion. At best this was distracting for leaders and influenced the areas that resources were focused on". "[The police] messed up, not me. Taxi drivers with nick-names like Car Zero and Master Aziz, a pillar of Rochdale's Pakistani community known as Tiger and a Muslim preacher were . Following the case in Rochdale similar cases of grooming and sexual abuse/exploitation of young girls came to light in various towns and cities across the UK. "Most child sexual abuse gangs made up of white men, Home Office report says", "A new Home Office report admits grooming gangs are not a 'Muslim problem', "Rochdale sex-grooming gangs able to flourish due to police errors says report", Greater Manchester Police, Report into Rochdale CSE investigation, 13 March 2015, "No officers to be charged over Rochdale child abuse failure, say police", The Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board, Review of Multi-Agency Responses to the Sexual Exploitation of Children, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rochdale_child_sex_abuse_ring&oldid=1140279348, This page was last edited on 19 February 2023, at 10:03. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. Department: 7014 LCMT CASE MGMT. History was repeating itself, said Maggie. Between 2008 and 2010, a child abuse ring that came to be known as part of the grooming gang phenomenon operated in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. "It's not an excuse that's the reality of where we are. Daisy had ambitions to become a social worker, to use her painful past to help others in the future. While this is true, Amber believes that she was used as a scapegoat. One of their victims tells her story. 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". VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. Police failed to tell council about arrest of Rochdale grooming gang leader who was employed as welfare rights officer Casework by police and social care was "very poor" in 10 sample cases I gave hours of interviews, reliving all the abuse. I asked Amber what gave her the strength to give evidence to the police, after what she had gone through. [1] One 13-year-old victim recounted that, after being forced to have sex in exchange for vodka, her abuser immediately raped her again and gave her 40 to not say anything about the incident. Attempts by Rochdale Crisis Intervention Team co-ordinator for the NHS, Sara Rowbotham, to alert police and authorities to "patterns of sexual abuse" were ignored. The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. On one occasion he ordered a girl aged 15 to have sex with Kabeer Hassan, as a "treat" for his birthday Hassan then raped the girl. A victim of Rochdale grooming gangs has told the BBC that convictions she received as a teenager - for offences linked to the abuse she was suffering - have destroyed her hopes of a career. She walked out, refusing to go along with this decision, and was forbidden from speaking to Amber. [10] The gang worked to secure underage girls to rape and exploit.[11][12]. Finally, she has been exonerated. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms. "What they did to me was evil, they ripped away my dignity, my self-esteem," she said. 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 trial at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012 heard five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex but there were times when violence was used. "Any criminal convictions that [Daisy] has, have been as a direct consequence of the abuse and exploitation. There was a "shocking" inability to protect seven vulnerable girls from sexual exploitation, a report into the Rochdale grooming case has said. Stephen Watson says force had lacked professional curiosity when it came to young victims of grooming gangs 19 Apr 2022 Rochdale victim: 'I was groomed at 14, then the courts came for my. The investigation into the sexual abuse of the girl had been reopened following the exposure of police failings. Finally, officers did not challenge a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute. Known as the "Rochdale Grooming" case, over 1400 vulnerable children were systematically abused by gangs of men between 2005 and 2013. Why can't I get a job? I hoped that I would be able to persuade the elders to go knocking on doors and say 'this behaviour is un-Islamic and I want it to stop because I'm going to tell the whole community about you and what youre doing if you dont'. Nine men were convicted of being part of the child sexual exploitation ring, Nazir Afzal regrets that the CPS dropped the original grooming case, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. I shouldve been helped, not punished.. She still has a scar on her arm and as far as we know, the man who abused her was never investigated. Had stepped in sooner was missed in 2008 and both the police, the BBC broadcast Three girls a... Between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gang worked secure... The trials conclusion, there were fears that press involvement would frighten the girls were! Bbc broadcast Three girls, a miniseries about the case after more complaints.... 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