Celeb BB Maggie: I’ll tell all on sex abuse cops’ failings
BBC’s Rochdale drama was just snapshot of events says ex detective
There’s no after care or counselling for the girls after the court case MAGGIE OLIVER ON THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
A FORMER detective appearing on Celebrity Big Brother is vowing to dish the dirt on police failings in the Rochdale child sex abuse ring case.
Maggie Oliver quit Greater Manchester Police to turn whistleblower after fighting on behalf of abused youngsters.
Now the ex-detective constable, who was played by Lesley Sharp in TV drama Three Girls, said there is far more to emerge than was revealed in last year’s BBC mini-series.
She told the Daily Mirror: “I am going to be talking about what happened, far more than ever came out in the drama. That was a tiny snapshot of what went on.”
Maggie, bookies’ favourite to win CBB, added: “The Rochdale case made me ill. It was the hardest two years of my life.
“I just knew I was going to give my job up. I was unemployed. I had to move out of our family home, which I’d been in for 25 years, and move into an apartment. But I can look at myself in the mirror and it’s restored my faith in people because one voice made a difference.”
In 2012, nine men were jailed for between four and 19 years for their part in a child sexual exploita- tion ring in Rochdale following a second investigation by Greater Manchester Police. Maggie had criticised a 2008 internal report into the first probe.
Maggie said: “My former colleagues won’t be worried about what I’m going to say but hopefully the ex-chief constable of Greater Manchester Police [Sir Peter Fahy] will be. I hope so. I hope they wheel him in as one of the men on the show.”
In 2015 Sir Peter said some officers made “mistakes and errors of judgment” but the “wider system” had “serious weaknesses”.
Maggie said: “He’s now Sir Peter Fahy. He’s been knighted. I think that’s a sad indictment of our system.
“The last five years has been an education in how the criminal justice system works, how the compensation system works, how the girls are treated when they go through a court case. There is no after care, no counselling, nothing.”
Several bookies placed Maggie’s odds at 3/1 following a flurry of bets.