Ex-officer intends to open centre for victims of sex abuse

LOCAL WOMEN and an ex-police whistleblower are looking for help to open the first centre dedicated to treat girls abused by gangs in Rochdale.

Maggie Oliver, the officer who resigned from Greater Manchester Police and went public over the botched Rochdale grooming inquiry, said there is little help out there for those still suffering torment at the hands of their abusers.

With the help of a network of local women and the community, she hopes to change that in the new year. The Maggie Oliver Foundation, launched in July, is a new charity, with premises, a centre manager and funding officer now being sought; their mission is to “transform pain into power”.

Ms Oliver said: “There’s virtually no help out there, that’s the truth.

“The survivors haven’t been guided into seeking criminal injuries compensation, there’s no accessible psychotherapy, the very best is a bit of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). These kids need long-term, detailed, professional help.”

This week a group of local women handed over £2,255 for the foundation, after 15 of them completed a sponsored walk up Mount Snowdon. In Rochdale, from at least 2003, girls as young as 13 were plied with drugs and alcohol before being passed around by grooming gangs and forced into sex with multiple men in flats and above takeaway shops.

The abuse continued for over a decade with police viewing the victims as “making lifestyle choices”, often living “chaotic’” lives and either in care or from “council estate” backgrounds.

Ms Oliver’s role in exposing how gangs of Asian men were preying on teenage girls was dramatised in Three Girls ,aBBC drama first screened in 2017.