The girls are heroes still suffering and in
Victim’s father slams the authorities over ‘back-slapping’
ONE night in August 2008, a girl aged 15 kicked off in the Balti House takeaway in Heywood.
She smashed up the counter in what looked like a simple act of vandalism. It was actually a cry for help by a victim of horrific sexual abuse.
A cry that fell on deaf ears.
Fast-forward almost 16 years and the courage of this vulnerable schoolgirl - in calling out the vile sex abuse she and other girls suffered at the hands of a grooming gang at the time - cannot be overestimated.
The Crown Prosecution Service ruled her story was ‘not credible’ and no charges were brought.
Two members of the grooming gang - the gang’s ringleader Shabir Ahmed and Kabeer Hassan - were arrested and released on bail.
When a proper investigation finally began, it ended with nine men being prosecuted and jailed in 2012.
Polite society struggled to comprehend the notion of an Asian grooming gang, plying vulnerable white girls with drink and sharing them with paedophiles across the north.
But it was clear white girls were being specifically targeted by a gang of largely Pakistani-heritage men because, as the sentencing judge would tell them, the men’s victims were ‘not of your community or religion’.
What followed was a plethora of reviews and apologies from the authorities - some of them very reluctant - and more prosecutions which, to the cynic, was a showy act of shutting the barn door when the horse had already bolted.
Then, in 2017, the whole story erupted again following the broadcast of the BBC documentary ‘The Betrayed Girls’ which reported NHS leaders in Rochdale notified Greater Manchester Police and
the council of ‘dozens’ of cases of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) prior to 2008, but both agencies failed to protect the children.
Among the many viewers was the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who commissioned a review team to evaluate the allegations as a result.
The report he commissioned was finally published this month – and it was damning.
The review team said it found ‘compelling evidence’ of ‘widespread organised sexual exploitation’ of children in the town between 2004 and 2012.
The report identified ‘at least’ 96 individuals ‘who potentially’ posed a risk to children over the period, but chillingly they are described as being ‘only a proportion’ of those involved in CSE’ across the town.
The story was a familiar one even if the numbers were not.
Following a 2012 trial, police said they were aware of 47 potential victims of the gang.
The report’s authors said they found ‘successive’ police operations ‘failed to tackle the widespread exploitation of children by these men’.
Three major Greater Manchester Police initiatives were ‘consistently under-resourced in providing the necessary support
to victims to disclose their abuse and for them to remain engaged with the investigation’.
And despite numerous convictions, 68 further ‘remaining’ children believed to have been abused are still said to be waiting for justice.
Girls were ‘left at the mercy’ of grooming gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses, the report said.
The damning 173-page review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out multiple failed investigations by GMP and apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters.
Among the voices to criticise the authorities, following the report, were
former GMP detective turned child sex abuse campaigner Maggie Oliver, who blew the whistle on the force and Sara Rowbotham, who compiled names and addresses of suspected abusers and supported girls during her time as an NHS sexual health worker in the town.
But, for the father of that poor girl who was arrested for smashing up the counter of the Balti House takeaway almost 16 years ago, the real heroes are the girls who had the courage to come forward and finally expose the sordid truth.
Their lives and the lives of other victims of that gang have unravelled in some cases.
Their pain hasn’t come
to an end. The Observer is aware some of the victims of the gang have struggled to rebuild their lives.
Some have been blighted by class A drug abuse while others have struggled to raise children and maintain healthy relationships with partners.
His daughter, who cannot be named as a victim of a sex crime, was referred to as Girl A in press reports of the 2012 trial and as Holly in the BBC drama about the scandal Three Girls which ran alongside the documentary.
The father of ‘Holly’ said: “There’s nothing new in there.
“The police said they were at fault. Social services admitted they were at fault. I just wish this would all just go away, the back slapping.
“This is really about the victims and the pain that’s left behind and that’s still there.
“I wish this would all just p**s off.
“That report didn’t tell us anything new that we don’t already know. I
“know it’s not a publicity stunt but it feels like it.
“The important thing is these girls need to be helped, even today.
“Whilst they are all slapping each other on the back, has anyone actually done anything for the victims?
“They have suffered. They’re still suffering.
“The effects of grooming last forever. The victims never really get over it. They’re unable to live lives that most people would find socially acceptable.
“They’re suffering real pain 14 years after the event. People think this is hung and dried and it’s not.
“People don’t just suffer for a week or two. They are suffering for the rest of their lives.
“The girls who went to court are the real heroes.
“They actually did something to bring these people down.
“This is just pulling up the past and causes pain and distress to the people who were actually victims.
“To this day, I’ve never had an apology from the police. We’ve had public apologies but I’ve never had a personal apology for what happened to my family, my daughter, after she smashed up that takeaway and it all started coming out.”
Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott said: “We are deeply sorry that the people who were at Rochdale Council during the period 2004 to 2013 did not recognise nor acknowledge the very serious failures that affected the lives of children in our borough and failed to take the necessary action.
“I want to reassure the public that those responsible are gone and long gone.
“As the current leader of Rochdale Council I want to repeat the apology we have made previously but also to reassure the public that far more rigorous practices are in place today to protect our children.
“Rochdale was already investigating these historical cases when the mayor’s review began in 2017 and a number are still ongoing and we want to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.
“We will be ever vigilant in our efforts to ensure these awful failures don’t happen again and that children will be protected.
“Every Ofsted inspection since 2014 has concluded that Rochdale responds to reports of child sexual exploitation effectively through our dedicated multi-agency Sunrise Team.
“We have offered and continue to offer support to those survivors of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.”
Chief Constable Stephen Watson said: “It remains to be a matter of profound regret that victims of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale in the early 2000s were failed by Greater Manchester Police - to them, I apologise.
“Today, I also recognise the plight of Maggie Oliver and Sara Rowbotham who advocated for victims
and survivors when no one else did and ultimately enabled the review and publication of this report.
“Whilst the report rightfully vindicates Maggie and Sara and reinforces the importance of the changes we have already made – many with Maggie’s support – it remains to be said that the current prevention of and response to child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and across Greater Manchester has been overhauled since the early 2000s to ensure that victims and survivors are cared for and receive the expected level of service.
“With Rochdale’s Complex Safeguarding Hub and the force’s Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team now boasting 120 police officers and staff, following a multi-million-pound investment, we have data to assure ourselves and communities that we have and are making progress.
“Since nine men were convicted following Operation Span in 2012, there have been a further 135 arrests, 432 charges and 32 convictions.
“This data should also warn perpetrators of child sexual exploitation that, regardless of the passage of time, GMP will pursue you until you face justice.”