Letter found in 2003 revealed grooming

POLICE uncovered a letter in 2003 which demonstrated that sexual grooming was taking place in Manchester long before the Rochdale scandal emerged.

A girl who died of a drugs overdose aged 15 penned the letter, which outlined how she had been the victim of abuse by a string of men, a new documentary claims.

The tragic case of Victoria Agoglia, who died of a heroin overdose in 2003, formed part of a GMP investigation into a gang of men who were suspected of abusing young girls on Manchester’s Curry Mile.

The investigation identified 17 potential victims including Victoria, who had lived in a care home in Rochdale, but the case was abandoned in 2005.

Now a new BBC documentary - a follow up to a drama about the Rochdale grooming scandal Three Girls - will say her death was a ‘cry for help’ which was ignored.

Victoria penned the letter aged just 13, writing: “I am only 13. I got the rest of my life ahead of me. I have slept with people older than me. Half of them I don’t even know there [sic] names.”

“It was really a cry for help,” said former Detective Constable Maggie Oliver, who repeated claims she has previously made that Operation Augusta, GMP’s probe into abuse committed by Pakistani-heritage men against vulnerable white girls, had been ‘buried’ in 2005 years before the Rochdale sex grooming scandal emerged.

“I could not believe it. I was incredulous. This was systematic child abuse... It was being buried,” Maggie told The Betrayed Girls, a 90-minute documentary on the scandal which will be broadcast on BBC One on Monday night.

The inaction was ‘immoral, inhuman and unprofessional,’ she tells the program.

The documentary includes interviews with victims of the subsequent Rochdale grooming gang as well as Sara Rowbotham, a sexual health worker in Rochdale who had helped to gather two filing cabinets of evidence against abusers.

“I was facing a great big brick wall,” said Sara, whose initial efforts to get her bosses and the police to act were ignored.

She and her staff compiled a ‘boyfriend book’ of names and nick-names given to them by abused girls, who frequently believed they were in a relationship with their abusers, so they could check if they cropped up more than once.

Nine members of the Rochdale sex grooming gang were jailed in 2012, which was declared a ‘fantastic result’ Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood of GMP.

But he was one of the bosses who had ‘dropped the job’ from 2004, Maggie Oliver tells the program.

Det Supt Jane Higham, head of crime and safeguarding for Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside said: “Safeguarding vulnerable people and especially children who have or at risk of being sexually abused continues to be a priority for GMP.

“It is vital that we learn lessons from the past, and to that end we are absolutely committed to working with our partners across Greater Manchester to tackle the sexual exploitation of children and young people. We have been working tirelessly for many years to prevent this abhorrent crime from happening and provide support to victims and their families.

“It’s important that we also understand the many different ways in which child sexual exploitation (CSE) presents itself.

“Over the past few years we have seen a significant increase in reports of sexual abuse and grooming online and more recently we have experienced a large increase in the reporting of historic sexual exploitation within sport - this has shaped a lot of our work in recent years, with the ‘It’s not okay’ initiative adapting and focussing on all of the different types of CSE, including online offending, grooming and children who go missing from home.

“In Rochdale a multiagency team called The Sunrise Team was established in 2013. Since then, the local team have worked with over 400 children.

“This partnership team has dedicated staff, trained and equipped to investigate child sexual exploitation, but also carries out prevention and education work.

“Partners include Rochdale Children’s Social Care, Parents Against Child Abuse, Pennine Care NHS Trust, Adult Social Care, Child Exploitation (a national 3rd sector organisation) and Early Break all working alongside GMP.

“This team works to the broader partnership, with a shared purpose and vision in tackling child sexual exploitation.

“The success of the approach taken by The Sunrise Team is recognised and now every local authority area within Greater Manchester has a similar multi-agency team who are dedicated to tackling child sexual exploitation.

“We will continue to work together in Rochdale and across Greater Manchester to protect children and young people, prosecute offenders and prevent them from committing further offences.

“To that end we also need the public to report any concerns they have and feel confident that we are listening and acting on information to stop this sickening abuse of children.”