Girls "left at mercy" of grooming gangs in Rochdale, England because of failings by senior police and council bosses, damning report says

[DerekFaker]

No surprise to anyone on here, I would guess. Those poor girls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67967919

And I don't teally have words for this!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/15/police-took-aborted-foetus-without-telling-rochdale-grooming-victim-review-finds

Does anyone have a link to the page with the full report? It doesn't seem to be on Mayor Burnham's site?

I blame the police because they knew for years and did nothing, thereby emboldening the abusers who did this in plain sight .

This is just Rochdale and, apparently, just a proportion of the children harmed there.

Is this it?

There are links via Andy Burnham’s X page.

https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/9148/operation-span-report-january-2024-v3.pdf

Ah that must be it. Was going round in a circle on that site

It’s all very well saying sorry, but WHY did this happen? Were the girls ignored because of their backgrounds (troubled and /or poorer backgrounds), or because they were female? Or did no-one want to point a finger at the perpetrators for fear of being called racist for acknowledging their attitudes to women and girls?

Watch the press conference with Maggie Oliver she is cogent and scathing BC this is still happening.

"We are really crap at listening to abuse victims" . Notes this is not a problem when someone reports a burglary but is when it's DV or sexual

This is shocking to day the least, but im not surprised. Its still going on now. Apparently the CSE 'team ' in Rochdale was made up of one DC and one Social worker. How on earth are two people expected to manage that kind of workload AND provide the level of service these girls deserved ?

The sheer fact the there was a 'child 44' made me blink. So, so many girls effectively blamed for their own abuse.

'Lock your door' indeed. What sort of police response is that to a threatened child?

Police corruption. Someone was being paid.

This is a file on 4 from 2020. I think she is mentioned in the report. Trigger warning etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000kv7v?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Women don't count. It's like the Savile thing. it was dismissed at first because the complainants were 'only girls'.

I want to weep for those poor children. They were seen as choosing the lifestyle, they were the men's girlfriends and they knew exactly what they were doing. NO! Pregnant at 13 is not a lifestyle choice!

I despair.

Apparently it's bad in Oldham too, yet to break.

There's another File on 4 I'm trying to find that actually spoke to a young woman still in the snare of these gangs. It's in a town "yet to become notorious" and she's basically unable to access stuff like modern slavery help because she doesn't trust the confidentiality of the police enough to testify.

Found it. The National Referral Mechanism doesn't actually apply to UK victims. So she's stuck. She describes the modus operandi quite graphically

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001cdts?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

beguilingeyes you have hit the nail on the head: girls don't matter. Every time I see yet another handwringing report saying 'how could this have happened? Who knew about it?' I think exactly the same as you - loads of people knew, but girls are fair game sexually so no one cared. That's how the likes of Savile 'hid in plain sight' - so many knew, so few cared.
The sexual abuse of any child, boy or girl, is equally despicable, but isn't it odd that in Operation Yewtree, the police were falling over themselves to believe reports of the sexual abuse of boys, to the point of believing the flimsiest of accusations and pursuing the alleged perpetrators even beyond the grave? What a contrast with Rochdale etc.
Classism and racism were also powerful ingredients in these cases.

This makes me feel sick.

All of this

https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/review-published-into-operation-span-and-non-recent-child-sexual-exploitation-in-rochdale/

isn't it odd that in Operation Yewtree, the police were falling over themselves to believe reports of the sexual abuse of boys, to the point of believing the flimsiest of accusations and pursuing the alleged perpetrators even beyond the grave? What a contrast with Rochdale etc

Let's face it - the hard fact is that that society actually expects that women will be subjected to a degree of sexual violence at some time in their lives - i.e, it's normal and normalised. Male rape isn't.

I'd like heads to roll in Rochdale but my cynicism tells me they'll either have retired or will be quietly retired. On full pension, of course.

But they weren't girlfriends. They thought they were .

There is an AMA thread 🧵 on here by a woman whose Ex groomed her. It's quite detailed. I hope she reports it and gets justice

You have only got to drive around Oldham & Rochdale at night to see that this is still going on and probably always will. Like other PP has said, society almost expects that women will be subject to some form of sexual violence within their lifetime. These girls are children, often the most vulnerable in our society and no one can protect them. It has gone too far. Some of these girls in Oldham were picked up from childrens homes by these grown men!!

Just listened to Maggie Oliver telling the head of the GMP that things have still not improved. She's been such a powerful advocate for these girls.