Maggie’s war: Demanding justice for the girls in the sex slave scandal
For over 16 years, Maggie Brown has been determined to get justice for young girls abused by grooming gangs in Rochdale – even when the authorities and the police looked the other way – despite the huge personal cost. Here’s her story...
The Rochdale grooming scandal shocked Britain. Girls as young as 13 were preyed on and abused, then – perhaps even more appallingly – let down by the authorities who turned a blind eye.
One woman has been raging a battle against the betrayal of these victims, and the hypocrisy and failures of those who should have protected them – former detective constable, Maggie Oliver. Maggie, now 64, quit her job in 2012 and became a whistleblower.
With great courage she has always refused to be silenced in her criticism of colleagues in the Greater Manchester Police force (GMP).
A 145-page report published last month appears to vindicate her complaints. It found the GMP failed to protect victims and were ‘aware of sensitive
community issues’ and feared the ‘incitement of racial hatred’ in the area at that time. In other words, police were afraid to arrest Pakistani men for fear of being accused of racism.
For Maggie, this new report is a victory– of sorts. She says: ‘It’s been the most traumatic journey to here. But I do feel completely vindicated and I’m pleased I’ve proved to myself I’ve had the strength to carry on. This is the truth.’
There’s no doubting Maggie is a formidable and brave woman. A mum-of-four, she didn’t even become a police officer until she was 42. And she’s the first to agree her decision to become a whistleblower has ‘completely altered’ her life.
Her association with the investigation began in 2004 when she worked on Operation Augusta, which was launched following the death of 15-year-old Victoria Agoglia, a teenager who had been in care since the age of eight. Police were looking into what they strongly suspected was a grooming network of older Pakistani-heritage men in the Rusholme area of Manchester, who – they believed – were having sex with vulnerable children living in care homes.
Maggie had been instrumental in gaining the trust of those victims and in compiling an extensive initial dossier of evidence. But, despite the probe identifying 97 suspected paedophiles and at least 57 young victims, the investigation was shelved – the decision made while Maggie was on compassionate leave, nursing her husband in the final stages of bowel cancer.
On her return to work, Maggie was, to put it mildly, unhappy with the decision. In her mind paedophiles had been left to roam the streets. In 2010 she was summoned to a detective chief superintendent’s office and asked to join Operation Span. The force, he said, intended to pick up from Operation Augusta and claimed this time they were looking for convictions. But they needed the help and cooperation of previous witnesses.
The challenge was to gain the trust of two sisters. The teenagers – Amber and Ruby (not their real names) – had been interviewed before.
To Maggie’s shock, it turned out the Crown Prosecution Service had, in their wisdom, dismissed the girls’ testimony as ‘unreliable’ as they had made ‘ lifestyle choices’ to become ‘prostitutes’.
Lifestyle choices? These were underprivileged teenagers for whom lifestyle choices were fairly limited.
Instead of being treated as a victim, 15-year-old Amber was herself arrested and accused of ‘grooming’ because she had taken a friend to the kebab shop the gang operated from. Her sister Ruby had been raped at 12 and had an abortion. Unbeknown to Ruby the foetus had been kept frozen as police evidence.
Reeling from this information, Maggie suspected the brief – to get the girls back on side – was too big an ask. But in the end, with promises by senior officers that this time justice would be done, Maggie agreed to try.
The extent of the abuse uncovered is horrifying. Vulnerable young, mainly white, girls thought they were having relationships with men in their 20s – only to find themselves passed on to older men. The girls were enticed with kebabs, burgers and cans of soft drinks – and ended up being passed around at sex parties and raped.
A case eventually came to trial in 2012. Just 11 men were tried. Maggie is convinced that the number should have exceeded two dozen. Eight men originally from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan were given sentences ranging from four to 19 years. Two men were acquitted.
Those involved with the prosecution were pleased with the result. Maggie, on the other hand felt the victims had been let down, again.
There and then, she decided: ‘I had to speak up about the abusers who were still at large. I needed to resign from my job and become a whistleblower.’
After resigning, Maggie became vocal in her criticism. She has appeared on TV – even on Celebrity Big Brother.
But importantly she worked as a consultant on a TV drama that brought the Rochdale grooming scandal to life in 2017. BAFTAwinning Three Girls was watched by nearly nine million people with Maggie played by Lesley Sharp.
Last year it was reported some abusers have been released from jail – one woman wet herself in fear after spotting hers in the town.
It is partly Maggie’s refusal to give up which led to the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to commission this latest independent report.
Now she says, ‘Girls were lost to the wind. We will never be able to put a number on how many lives have been lost.
‘I want the law changing so there can be retrospective accountability for people whose duty it is to protect the vulnerable. It’s knowing and deliberate neglection of duty… [those who were involved] should be charged with gross misconduct – it’s criminal. Where is the accountability?’
And what does she say to those who still doubt her?
‘Read this report – put that in your pipe and smoke it.’
Hold on to old mascara wands and use them to apply hairspray or serum to flyaways.