How Oldham failed its child abuse victims
REVIEW FINDS SERIOUS LAPSES IN POLICE INVESTIGATIONS
A 12-YEAR-OLD girl who was raped multiple times by different men was failed by Oldham authorities and the police missed opportunities to bring her abusers to justice, a damning report has concluded, writes Charlotte Green.
Almost three years after being commissioned, a review into allegations of historic child sexual exploitation has found that children in Oldham were being exploited and let down by services which tried and failed to protect them.
Among its damning findings, the review has uncovered that:
– The Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed worked as a welfare officer in Oldham unchecked for three years despite being accused of serious child sexual abuse.
– Girls being drugged and violently raped were said by social workers to be ‘putting themselves at risk’.
– Oldham council gave taxi driver licences to men convicted or accused of serious sexual offences involving women and children.
– Shisha bars were known to be a threat, but vulnerable children as young as 13 still visited them for years.
In an individual case, the review found that Sophie – not her real name – fell into the hands of predators after trying to report a sexual assault at Oldham police station, which led to a further 24 hours of torment in which she was raped repeatedly.
The review, commissioned by Oldham council in 2019 and written by experts Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgway, looked at the way authorities have dealt with child sexual exploitation between 2011 and 2014, and one specific case dating back to 2005.
It was launched on the back of allegations made on social media, which have gained a large following and have begun to exert significant influence within Oldham politics – contributing to the dethroning of two council leaders in just two years.
However, the report states that it has found no evidence of a widespread cover-up of sexual exploitation in the borough, and between the years 2011 to 2014 services endeavoured to prevent at risk young people from being taken advantage of.
But the authors say that while strategies were good on paper, they frequently did not translate into protecting children on the ground from abuse.
The ‘Messenger’ service, which was set up in 2006, aimed to safeguard children against sexual exploitation, and involved Oldham council, social workers, specialists from the charity Barnardo’s, and Greater Manchester Police (GMP).
After being launched, the Operation Messenger identified scores of children, some as young as 12 years old, who were being groomed in the borough
A risk register stated the possible harm to children was so high the ‘worst-case’ risk was that a ‘young person could be killed’.
However, the review finds that ‘commendable strategic approaches did not always translate into the appropriate level of safeguarding for young people at risk of child sexual exploitation’.
Plans put in place by professionals were more devoted to monitoring abuse than putting in place an ‘assertive plan’ to prevent and disrupt it. Instead, social workers often said that girls were not taking responsibility for protecting themselves, and phrases such as ‘putting herself at risk’ were regularly used.
“This was despite the evidence that the children were being drugged or made senseless on vodka then subjected to violent rapes, often by several men in succession, and to serious physical assaults, coercion and threats,” the review states.
There was an ‘over-reliance’ on the need for victims to cooperate with police by pressing charges, despite the often coercive and threatening relationships with their abusers, and even in the cases where there were witnesses and forensic evidence.
Police had a ‘significant’ amount of information on some of the men who were grooming and abusing children, but despite this it appeared that they could exploit their victims with ‘relative impunity due to the failure to disrupt and target their activities’. Following these findings, Oldham council and GMP have agreed to review these cases and consider whether further action can be taken against the men who abused these children.
In response to the report, Greater Manchester leaders have apologised for the failings by both police and child protection services.
Oldham council leader Amanda Chadderton said: “We fully accept the findings of this independent report.
“It highlights clear failings, where our services at the time were not good enough to protect vulnerable young people suffering the most awful abuse. For that I am deeply sorry.
“I can never fully understand what those girls went through, and I also know that an apology now will never make up for what has happened in the past.
“I do hope, however, to offer some reassurance that, as a council, we haven’t stood still since the time period the review refers to.
“We have learned from reports carried out in other towns and cities across the country, and from changes in national guidance, and have changed the way we do things as a result.
The way we work has already moved on immeasurably. “We are not complacent. We can and will improve further, wherever we need to.”
Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Stephen Watson said: “The safeguarding arrangements that were in place in GMP during the time period covered by the review were not good enough to protect children from sexual abuse.
“I want to offer my sincere apologies to everyone affected by the events considered in the report. Our actions fell far short of the help that they had every right to expect and were unacceptable. I am sorry for the hurt and ongoing trauma they have suffered because of what happened to them.”
He added he intends to meet directly with Sophie and the organisation that has been supporting her to apologise in person.
“However, I would also like to take the opportunity today to state publicly that I am very sorry for the failings in how we responded to her call for help; for how we did not record or sufficiently investigate the crimes committed against her and did not do enough to listen and support her during the subsequent reviews we undertook of her case.
“I offer no excuses but can give assurances that our approach to tackling child sexual exploitation has vastly improved and is now a policing priority,” he said.