"[54], One of the seven officers retired without any sanctions being taken, even though his misconduct was found to have warranted disciplinary action. 2023 BBC. A victim of Rochdale grooming gangs has told the BBC that convictions she received as a teenager - for offences linked to the abuse she was suffering - have destroyed her hopes of a career. Why the Rochdale 'grooming trial' wasn't about race Focusing on the ethnicity of the men convicted of child sex offences in Rochdale detracts from the real issue: this was ultimately about. [32], In 2011, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre launched a five-month long investigation into whether there was a link between racial profile and the crime of underage grooming. "[32], The former head of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "For this particular type of crime, the street grooming of teenage girls in northern towns there is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in the prosecutions for such offences. History was repeating itself, said Maggie. Despite one victim going to the police in 2008 to report the child grooming, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute two men, invoking the witness's lack of credibility. said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. Her mother was not allowed to be with her during the interview, and there was no mention of an appropriate adult. [20], Four of the convicted, Shabir Ahmed, Adil Khan, Abdul Rauf and Abdul Aziz, who had dual British and Pakistani citizenships, were denaturalized (stripped of their British citizenship) by then Home Secretary Theresa May in order for them to be deported to Pakistan. She described the Rochdale case as "even more disgusting" than cases of girls being passed around street gangs, as the perpetrators "were grown men, some of them religious teachers or running businesses, with young families of their own. "It's not a normal relationship when your boyfriend is getting you to sleep with all his friends for money.". Research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) investigated Kabeer Hassan and another man, aged 59. "It made me feel like I was pretty. "Why have I still got a criminal record? Some studies suggest an overrepresentation of black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations. In other words, victims of horrific abuse had been ignored until one of them - the girl who smashed up the takeaway - finally made her story heard. "What they did to me was evil, they ripped away my dignity, my self-esteem," she said. The grooming case seemed ripe for exploitation: all the girls were white, all the accused were Asian Muslim men, and they had displayed a searing contempt for their victims. Rochdale grooming case: what really happened? Were told 84% of grooming gangs are Asian. ", Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board, Wigan driver waits to find out if he will be spared a road ban after driving at almost 100mph on the motorway, Police issue appeal to trace missing girl from Stockport, Urgent police appeal to locate missing teenage girl not seen for over 24 hours, Constance Marten's baby found in Brighton woodland Met Police say, Bolton Wanderers player Kyle Dempsey faces possible jail term - court, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon: Body found in search for missing baby, Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. UK News US News World News Weird News Real Life More Hopeful TeamDogs In Your Area. She plans to become a social worker, partly due to the ordeal she suffered while still a vulnerable young girl. I hoped that I would be able to persuade the elders to go knocking on doors and say 'this behaviour is un-Islamic and I want it to stop because I'm going to tell the whole community about you and what youre doing if you dont'. A significant proportion of cases were labelled as no further action needed and the leadership team were not interested in childrens social care. But after a while it had been going on for so long and with so many different men, I didn't feel anything towards it anymore. One of their victims tells her story. [53], On 13 March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. "I tried to say no in a nice way, but he wasn't having it.". File on 4 - Groomed, abused and put in prison: Rochdale's untold story will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 14 July at 20:00 BST and repeated on Sunday 19 July at 17:00 BST. Just before the due date of her second baby, she was called to the family court, where an application was made to remove both children on the grounds that Amber was an abuser and a danger to children. Operation Span was the investigation launched in December 2009 into allegations made against the individuals who were convicted in 2012, and others. [5] The girls were mainly White British. Known as the "Rochdale Grooming" case, over 1400 vulnerable children were systematically abused by gangs of men between 2005 and 2013. Police and social workers failed the girls who were "passed around for sex" by a gang of men, it said. But in court, she was portrayed by the prosecution and defence as an assistant pimp. She specifically spoke of her abuse at the hands of two members of the gang who would later be jailed four years. Numerous opportunities to intervene were missed and only two girls received child protection planning, the report said. [45] In particular they pointed out that the inquiry by the Office of the Children's Commissioner[33] found that, while a majority of victims were white and a majority of perpetrators were men of South Asian descent, there were many cases where "perpetrators and their victims were ethnically diverse. [55], Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 10:03, UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, List of sexual abuses perpetrated by groups, Post-assault treatment of sexual assault victims, "Rochdale grooming trial: gang convicted for sex trafficking", "Rochdale child sex ring case: respected men who preyed on the vulnerable", "Rochdale grooming trial: Nine found guilty of child sex charges", "Rochdale grooming trial: how the case unfolded", "Rochdale child sex ring: did political correctness delay justice? "At first I felt really bad, dirty and ashamed. Something went wrong, please try again later. Rochdale is also being considered as part of the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining whether authorities across the country took the problem seriously. "[The police] messed up, not me. Copley said: "We apologise to the victims and we give them our assurance that lessons have been learned, changes have been made and we are determined to use this to continue making improvements. Some of you acted as you did to satiate your lust, some of you to make money, all of you treated them as though they were worthless and beyond respect.. [36], In a BBC documentary investigating grooming young girls for sex by some Pakistani men, Imam Irfan Chishti from the Rochdale Council of Mosques deplored the practice, saying it was "very shocking to see fellow British Muslims brought to court for this kind of horrific offence. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A victim of Rochdale grooming gangs has told the BBC that convictions she received as a teenager - for offences linked to the abuse she was suffering - have destroyed her hopes of a career. Attempts by Rochdale Crisis Intervention Team co-ordinator for the NHS, Sara Rowbotham, to alert police and authorities to "patterns of sexual abuse" were ignored. "At first I thought it was great because nothing sexual had happened, I thought I could just get all of this stuff for free.". There was a complete lack of understanding of the world in which they existed. During that period, Amber by now pregnant and living in a one-room flat continued to be targeted by the grooming gangs. You have only got my kind here. The probe began after a local teenager was arrested for smashing up a cabinet at the Balti . In some cases those girls were raped, callously, viciously and violently. The arrests are in relation to one of the five girls who gave evidence at Liverpool Crown Court in the case of a child sex grooming ring in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Career Track: Leadership. The dramatisation tells the story of three children who were victims in the scandal and stars Maxine Peake as sexual health worker Sara, who recorded and reported cases of child abuse for years. Daisy gave evidence at the Rochdale grooming trial; her testimony about the abuse she witnessed helped put men in prison. It was like a casual, Oh, bring your friends. She was a vulnerable child, being sexually abused, controlled and in fear. There was a "shocking" inability to protect seven vulnerable girls from sexual exploitation, a report into the Rochdale grooming case has said. Three Girls review a brave new focus on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Following the case in Rochdale similar cases of grooming and sexual abuse/exploitation of young girls came to light in various towns and cities across the UK. There were therefore many still walking free that had evaded detection. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. But the investigation, according to one officer who was involved, was a car crash. [46], The Rochdale case was one of several cases which prompted investigations looking into the claim that "the majority of the perpetrators have been British Pakistani"; the first was by Quilliam in December 2017, which released a report entitled "Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation Dissecting Grooming Gangs", which claimed 84% of offenders were of South Asian heritage. A much bigger case had been built but, importantly, he simply believed his star witness. Their treatment encompasses a range of catastrophic errors in one of the countrys most harrowing child sexual abuse scandals. In May 2012, nine men from Rochdale were convicted and jailed for grooming girls with alcohol, drugs and gifts before forcing them to have sex with multiple men. [25], The findings have been questioned by researchers Ella Cockbain and Helen Brayley, from whose work for the UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science The Times report had drawn much of its evidence. She was being shared around paedophiles across the north of England. [1] Forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation during the police investigation. Although a court order prevented her being named, everyone in her local community knew who she was. NINE men who ran the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were eventually jailed for a string of offences in 2012. Nazir Afzal, the newly-appointed chief crown prosecutor for the north west, reversed the decision not to prosecute the two who had been arrested and eventually authorised the charging of ten men in June 2011. Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women's Justice, is supporting Daisy in a civil action against Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. Cryer said, "Neither the police nor social services would touch those cases. "They threaten you, and you're scared of them, and that's how they make you do it.". "It will always be there, but I know how to deal with it," she said. She not only suffered at the time [of the abuse] but she continues to suffer because of the criminal records. Now we have to confront forced marriage among Travellers', "Rochdale paedophile ringleader is named", "Rochdale child sex ring: nine men jailed", "Rochdale Child Sex Ring: 'Master', 'Tiger' and Seven Others Guilty of Rape and Trafficking", "Rochdale grooming leader guilty of child rape", "Rochdale grooming trial: Nine men jailed", "Members of Rochdale grooming gang face deportation to Pakistan", "Arrests made in second Rochdale sex grooming scandal", "Police vow to arrest even more child sex suspects", "Ten men charged over Rochdale child abuse claims", "Revealed: conspiracy of silence on UK sex gangs", "Rochdale grooming trial: Police accused of failing to investigate paedophile gang for fear of appearing racist", "Rochdale grooming trial: Asian grooming gangs, the uncomfortable issue", "Report 'downplays sex abuse by Asian men', "Quitting the English Defence League: When Tommy Met Mo", "Sexually exploited children are at further risk in care, says Barnardo's", "Child sex trafficking study sparks exaggerated racial stereotyping", "Grooming offences committed mostly by Asian men, says ex-Barnardo's chief", "Rochdale featured in sex grooming documentary", "Heywood: Rochdale town at the centre of child sex ring", "Why the Rochdale 'grooming trial' wasn't about race", "Complaints over use of 'Asian' label in grooming cases", "It's time to stop using the word 'Asians', "UK Hindus, Sikhs protest 'Asian' label for culprits", "Rochdale taxi firm boss in 'race choice' U-turn", "Child grooming and sexual exploitation: are South Asian men the UK media's new folk devils? 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