Grooming evidence that’s still secret after 13 years
Nine months after mayor Andy Burnham lifted the lid on police and council failings - there’s still an ongoing battle to uncover the truth and get justice for Victoria Agoglia
IT was mid-January that Joan Agoglia, an elderly lady holding a cane and wearing visual impairment glasses, took a microphone and began to tell her story of a lifetime of pain.
First, she lost her adopted daughter, her second child Donna, to brain cancer.
Donna’s death left several children without a mum, the eldest being Victoria aged just eight. The child had been a ‘mother hen’ during Donna’s illness, Joan said, always looking after her brothers and sisters.
But Victoria’s independence, at such a young age, is perhaps what set her off down a path that ended in further tragedy - and ultimately her death in Rochdale in 2003.
Despite their grandma’s protestations, the children were taken into care and Victoria became one of dozens of children preyed upon by a paedophile grooming gang in the early 2000s.
She told her social workers she was being forced to take drugs and raped - no action was taken.
Then, in September 2003, Victoria died in Rochdale, aged 15, after being injected with heroin by a 50-yearold man.
Seventeen years later, her grandma Joan Agoglia couldn’t hold back the tears as she told a packed press conference: “It’s all my fault this.”
Also in the room was the mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham who intervened to reassure her: “It’s not at all Joan.
“And I just want to say to you, sorry that’s it taken so long to be able to have this moment.”
Joan believed that that moment, the prelude to a new investigation being opened into Victoria’s death, meant that she would finally get all the answers about the crimes and institutional failures that led to it, and some measure of justice for her lost granddaughter.
But, months later, the search for answers is dogged by wrangling over documents. And at the heart of it is a bundle of evidence from Victoria’s 2007 inquests, the contents of which could, if looked at again, unlock the truth.
The death of Victoria Agoglia was a shameful chapter in Manchester’s history - a young girl that should have been looked after by the state was abused in the most appalling way, right under the noses of police and council services.
Afterwards, the authorities continued to let down Victoria and dozens of other victims.
Police launched Operation Augusta, but after spending two years identifying almost 100 suspects and 57 potential victims, the investigation was shut down for ‘resource reasons.’
One of the detectives on Augusta, Maggie Oliver, later resigned from Greater Manchester Police over its handling of an almost identical grooming scandal in Rochdale.
She has since spent years turning the spotlight on child sexual exploitation and in 2017 contributed to a BBC documentary ‘The Betrayed Girls.’
This helped convince mayor Andy Burnham and deputy mayor Bev Hughes to commission a review into the handling of CSE cases in the region, and the first part was published nine months ago.
The report, written by child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam and former senior police officer Gary Ridgway, exposed a litany of failings by authorities at the time.
“Victoria’s death should have been a wake-up call on child sexual exploitation to the whole of Greater Manchester. But it wasn’t,” the mayor said at the time.
“The system was guilty of appalling failings.”
Operation Greenjacket, the new investigation launched by Greater Manchester Police in 2018, is ongoing and is now said to be looking at more than 50 potential victims.
Joan’s legal team have started the process to have the conclusion of then coroner Simon Nelson challenged in the high court.
Campaigners do not feel it did Victoria or her memory justice.
In his narrative conclusion 13 years ago, Mr Nelson said Vicky’s death could not have been reasonably foreseen by authorities and suggested the teenager had a pro- pensity to ‘provide sexual favours.’
The authors of Mr Burnham’s report said this ‘significantly underplays the coercion and control she was subject to’ in terms of child sexual exploitation.
In order to mount their legal challenge to Mr Nelson’s conclusion, Joan’s legal team asked the current coroner Joanne Kearsley for access to the 2007 inquest bundle. It amounts to more than 700 pages of documents relating to Greater Manchester Police, Manchester Council, the company that ran Victoria’s care home Green Corns, and her family. In August, Ms Kearsley ruled that Joan Agoglia could be given the bundle. However, before it had been served, Manchester council became aware and launched a legal challenge for it to be subject to Public Interest Immunity (PII) which would keep its contents secret from Joan Agoglia. At Rochdale Coroner’s Court, the authority argued Joan Agoglia is not a ‘proper person’ to be in possession of the bundle and that it would pose ‘a serious risk of harm’ to others if she were to have it. Meanwhile, the council’s barrister Sophie Cartwright suggested Joan does not have ‘locus standi’ - the legal right for a person to bring an action in court. Ms Cartwright said Mrs Agoglia was ‘not a blood relative of Victoria’ (Joan adopted Donna) was not a ‘significant carer’ for her and said there is no ‘evidence of any such relationship.’
In response, Fiona Murphy, representing Mrs Agoglia, said: “There is complete public interest in ensuring that any failures by Manchester city council that may have caused or contributed to Victoria’s death and the child sexual exploitation of others are identified and remedied.
“[Mrs Agoglia] states ‘Vicky knew I was not her biological grandma, but that didn’t matter to us.
“‘We had a grandma, granddaughter relationship. Vicky called me nanna. We were family, that was simple to me.’”
Coroner Joanne Kearsley will rule on whether the bundle should be granted Public Interest Immunity (PII) in the next two weeks.
Ms Kearsley also revealed this week that she intends to apply to the Attorney General for a fresh inquest after ‘new evidence’ about Victoria’s death came to light.
But Joan’s legal team don’t see why this should stop Mrs Agoglia from getting the 2007 bundle.
“There’s something there that warrants getting into the fresh air,” says Maggie Oliver, who has supported Joan Agoglia’s legal fight.
“Joan wants to ask the questions. If she isn’t the one who’s granted access [to the bundle] she won’t be able to ask the questions.
“That’s what this smacks of, they want a new inquest but they want to control it.
“They want to control the questions that get asked.”
Paul Marshall, Director of Children’s Services, said: “We have proactively engaged with the coroner and provided extra information to enable her to make a decision to apply for the inquest of Victoria Byrne to be reopened.
“We would reiterate that the question at this week’s hearing was whether a huge amount of very personal information, not just about Victoria but her family, friends and associates some of which may form part of an ongoing police investigation.
“Quite simply, we have a duty to only share confidential information about individuals where it is legal and appropriate to do so. We await the coroner’s decision on this matter.”
Councillor Garry Bridges, Executive Member for Children and Schools, said: “The circumstances of Victoria’s life and her death make for very painful reading and it is important that the events which contributed to her death are explored fully. It is absolutely right that there should be a further inquest if the coroner believes there are aspects which were left unanswered, or dealt with unsatisfactorily by the previous inquest.”
The Mayor’s office declined to comment at this stage.