Abused failure
To stop the sex gangs
The report’s authors also said they found ‘no meaningful activity’ was taken to assess risks posed by the abusers’ to their own children.
Ms Rowbotham - said to have been frustrated by a ‘lack of action’ - mapped out the information her team gleaned after speaking to children.
The council and GMP were alerted in 2007 and the force identified the two main gang leaders they believed were using children as part of a drug-dealing operation.
Some children were also said to have disclosed crimes directly to police.
At least 11 children were identified then.
But despite the presence of ‘a clear pattern of information’ that would have ‘presented a potentially successful line of inquiry,’ the report says: “GMP and its partners chose to not progress any investigation against these men as they were informed that the children were too frightened to assist any inquiry.
In a damning conclusion, it says: “We conclude this was a serious failure to protect these children and agencies ignored the coercion and control these men were able to perpetrate on these children and their families.”
A 15-year-old girl arrested after smashing a glass chiller at a takeaway in
Heywood in August 2008 went on to tell police of the abuse and rapes she had endured by men across the north west.
Her brave disclosures led to the conviction of the nine men jailed in 2012 - which included former taxi driver Shabir Ahmed, the gang’s ringleader who encouraged victims to call him ‘Daddy.’
Assessing the first unsuccessful investigation, the report concludes ‘this investigation identified widespread sexual exploitation of many vulnerable children by at least 30 adult perpetrators.’
The investigating officer wanted more resource, but the report says his ‘superiors’ at GMP didn’t support his request and consequently, the investigation ‘only scraped the surface of what had occurred.’
It led to the Crown Prosecution Service ruling the teenager was an unreliable witness and no charges being brought - a decision that was later overturned with apologies being made by both GMP and the CPS.
In 2010, a specialist team - Sunrise - was put together and a police constable ‘identified a complex network of CSE within Rochdale’ - with the report referencing ‘the widescale abuse of children by up to 60 men.’
A detective inspector went on to press their case to the police senior command team in Rochdale.
But requests for extra staffing again fell on deaf ears.
The report says: “Once more, children were left at the mercy of their abusers because of an inadequate response by GMP and children’s social care to the serious exploitation of vulnerable children.”
It wasn’t until December 2010 - almost a year after the teenager arrested at the takeaway gave her account - police formed a major incident team.
The resulting convictions of Ahmed and others followed in 2012 but the report says the investigation, Operation Span, ‘was a relatively limited offenderfocused investigation that mainly addressed a small number of perpetrators who had not been prosecuted following the earlier disclosures in 2008.’
GMP commanders, it goes on, didn’t consider Span as a priority. And the anguish of victims continued after the trial - due to a lack of promised follow-up support.
Operation Span, which identified 58 named suspects, did lead to convictions, but the report says it ‘failed to address the numerous crimes and instances of exploitation brought to the notice of GMP and children’s social care at the time.’
The report says Sara Rowbotham and Maggie
Oliver - who later resigned in disgust from GMP - were right all along. What they were saying was ‘credible,’ yet they were described in the report as ‘lone voices.’
Operation Doublet was launched in May 2012 to address concerns abusers remained at large after Span. By the November, 42 children were identified, but the report says months earlier, some 127 referrals of potential victims had been made to social services.
The report goes on: “This figure later grew to 260 potential victims, of which only 90 had been approached as part of Operation Doublet and its related operations.
“Despite the public outrage in respect of failed children in Rochdale, senior managers in both GMP and Rochdale Council decided to take no positive action in respect of the remaining 170 potential victims unless they formally came forward.”
Doublet was said to be beset by a ‘very high victim drop out rate,’ blamed in the report on a lack of police resource.
Two further police investigations arose - codenamed Routh and Lytton.
Today, figures show 42 convictions have so far been secured in total in relation to Rochdale, leading to jail sentences of more than 430 years.
The cases of 44 further charged suspects are due in court this year and next.
The report acknowledges the efforts put in to secure convictions, but adds: “Nonetheless, the number of children included in these trials was a very small proportion of the children who were known to be sexually exploited in Rochdale over the period we have covered.”
It says there are 68 ‘remaining’ children ‘where we have concluded in this report that there is substantial evidence they were being sexually exploited between 2002 and 2012.’
Malcolm Newsam, lead author, said: “During the period covered by this review, GMP and Rochdale Council failed to prioritise the protection of children who were being sexually exploited by a significant number of men within the Rochdale area. We have also concluded that Sara Rowbotham was unfairly criticised by the two serious case reviews for not having appropriately referred children at risk of exploitation.
“For several years, Sara Rowbotham and her colleagues were lone voices in raising concerns about the sexual exploitation and abuse of these children.
“Successive police operations were launched over this period, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation within the area.
“Consequently, children were left at risk and many of their abusers to this day have not been apprehended.”
Operation Green Jacket, launched by GMP ahead of the publication of the Augusta report, has now seen 50 arrests made.
The operation, launched together with Manchester city council, is focusing on CSE in the south Manchester area in the early 2000s.
Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott said: “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.”
Chief Constable Stephen Watson said: “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.”