Video patrols to nab paedo gangs
EXCLUSIVE JOE HINTON PARENTS in a town scarred by grooming scandals are mounting video patrols to root out perverts preying on children.
They are touring spots where gangs could pick up vulnerable youngsters including petrol stations, parks, shopping centres and takeaways.
And they have bought body cameras so they can film any suspicious activity and pass footage to the police.
Parents Against Grooming was set up in the wake of the child exploitation scandal in Rochdale, Lancs, where police ignored hundreds of warnings that girls were being abused by a gang of Asian men.
The Daily Star Sunday can reveal police in the town are now probing a “significant number” of new cases of grooming.
But the group believes police are still not doing enough to prevent the crimes.
Member Billy Howarth, who has met politicians and police to discuss the problem, said: “We’ve got to keep our kids safe and if the police won’t do their job then we will take to the streets and do it for them.”
The dad-of-two stressed: “We are not vigilantes. We are concerned parents and residents who will video what we see and send it to the police and hopefully they will take it from there.
“We are also sending a message to the men still grooming and exploiting these girls that we are on their tails. If we can stop one girl being exploited and having her life ruined it will have been worth it.”
The scandal hit the headlines again this year with the harrowing BBC One drama Three Girls, starring Maxine Peake as whistleblower Sara Rowbotham. Last week a documentary The Betrayed Girls analysed the crimes of the nine men, their 47 victims and officers’ failure to act.
It featured testimony of victims whose stories have not been told before and included interviews with Sara, manager of the Rochdale Crisis Intervention Team, former Detective Constable Maggie Oliver and Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal.
The revelation in May 2012 that the men were guilty of grooming, rape and sex trafficking shocked the nation.
It turned out that the police and social services had known about the abusers for years but did nothing – despite Sara’s best efforts to get them to intervene.
Leader Shabir Ahmed – who is serving 22 years – is currently fighting deportation back to Pakistan.
Greater Manchester Police, which covers the Rochdale area, refused to reveal how many new cases they were investigating for “operational reasons”.
But Billy said he had been told by a senior police officer that there were a “significant number”.
He added: “I know of seven new cases off the top of my head. This problem is not going away.”