The patchy training of frontline staff was to blame for the way childrens social care responded to the victims, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board (RBSCB) said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. [8] The victims, plied with drugs and alcohol, were passed around friends and family,[18] and taken to various locations in the north of England, including Rochdale, Oldham, Nelson, Bradford and Leeds. Molly Windsor, Liv Hill and Ria Zmitrowicz feature as a trio of girls drawn into the frightening world of sexual exploitation. Rochdale grooming case - what really happened? [10] The gang worked to secure underage girls to rape and exploit.[11][12]. ", "Lesley Sharp: 'What happened to the girls in Rochdale is never far from my mind', "British-Pakistani researchers say grooming gangs are 84% Asian", Failing victims, fuelling hate: challenging the harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' narrative. Of the 56 offenders convicted since 1997 for crimes relating to on-street grooming of girls aged 11 to 16, three were white, 53 were Asian of which 50 were Muslim, and most were from the British Pakistani community. 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. One of their victims tells her story. Social services became involved when she started to arrive at school dirty and sometimes smelling of alcohol. Address: CA Torrance 4101 Torrance Blvd. But before what turned out to be the final interview, Oliver says she started to notice a change in tone from senior officers, and felt they were now deliberately trying to push this victim away. The ringleader, 59-year-old Shabir Ahmed, claimed the girls were "prostitutes" who had been running a "business empire" and it was all "white lies". "It's not a normal relationship when your boyfriend is getting you to sleep with all his friends for money.". Full-Time. [47] However this report was "fiercely" criticised for its unscientific nature and poor methodology by child sexual exploitation experts Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, in their paper "Failing Victims, Fuelling Hate: Challenging the Harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' Narrative" which was published in January 2020. Instead, when she became upset and disruptive, she was arrested and later convicted of disorderly behaviour. Abdul Rauf was sentenced to six years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. Critics say the delays meant more girls were left to be abused while the criminal justice system slowly changed its course. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. [9] The men were aged between 24-59 and all knew each other. [I] cant remember exactly what they said, but it was something along the lines of being a madam, she recalled. Behind the scenes, however, there was consternation. Even though she had been a victim, she was accused of being involved in the grooming. I trusted police that I would be helped this time. Social workers focused on young people's high-risk behaviour and "not their vulnerability", the latest review found. The probe began after a local teenager was arrested for smashing up a cabinet at the Balti . He shouted in court, "Where are the white people? Grooming victim: "What they did to me was evil. Because she was not involved in the trial, and therefore did not give evidence, she had no opportunity to defend herself. The report added that professionals repeatedly said the victims had it 'in their power' to stop the abuse 'suggesting this was something they could choose not to do'. The period during the buildup to the trial of the men accused of being part of the grooming gang, was dark for Amber. The perpetrators would pass the girls to their friends, often to settle a debt. But not all. [1] The abusers paid small sums of money for the encounters. A key member of the team was Detective Constable Maggie Oliver whose task was to convince the victims to speak to the police. "I got picked up so many times by the police and it was always when I was out with adult men," she says. An independent report commissioned by Rochdale council said three employees had spoken of victims making life choices rather than being rape victims. It resulted in the conviction of nine men for offences including rape and human. 10:45, 3 JUL 2017. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Three Girls: Maggie Oliver says known paedophiles are still abusing girls in Rochdale and authorities are 'more interested in covering up mistakes', according to one officer who was involved. Numerous opportunities to intervene were missed and only two girls received child protection planning, the report said. Nazir Afzal, chief prosecutor in the North West - who overturned the original CPS decision not to prosecute over allegations of abuse in 2009 - said: "I absolutely accept that things didn't go well for us and other agencies. In some cases those girls were raped, callously, viciously and violently. Why's nothing happened to the police? 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Police and social workers failed the girls who were "passed around for sex" by a gang of men, it said. Shabir Ahmed received the longest sentence, 19 years for rape, aiding and abetting a rape, sexual assault, trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. I felt sick, got upset nothing never no one from police came to me to explain why I was no longer going to court. The organisation defined underage grooming as any situation where a child or young person received a gift in exchange for sexual favours. It meant she was regarded by the prosecution as a member of the grooming gang whose members would go in the dock, even though she was not charged and would not stand beside them in court. Not just once - but repeatedly - by a gang of men who would ply her with vodka and threaten her with violence unless she succumbed to horrific abuse. Even when the authorities did recognise the problem, their slow reaction allowed the abusers to carry on exploiting their victims for years. The abuse continued for months, until one evening she was arrested by police for smashing the counter at a takeaway where some of the men met the girls. The exposure of the grooming, sexual assault and trafficking of young girls in Rochdale was made public in 2012. But when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reviewed the case in summer 2009, it was decided that the girl "would not be viewed as a credible witness" - a decision not appealed against by GMP - and no prosecution was brought. 2023 BBC. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the woman, who cannot be identified, said she was forced to have sex with up to five different men in a day, at least four times a week. "[37][38] Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, accused elders of the Pakistani community of "burying their heads in the sand" on the matter of sexual grooming. The convictions she received as a teen continue to hold her back to this day. [53], On 13 March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. Sir Peter Fahy said some girls 'don't want to make a complaint because that means they go into the criminal justice system'. It was like a casual, Oh, bring your friends. She was a vulnerable child, being sexually abused, controlled and in fear. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Her act of pent-up frustration in the takeaway - followed by her bravery in speaking out - was the first step, a key moment that would lead to questions about the part which racial identity played in sexual grooming of children in the town and in other places up and down the country. "[40], Hindu and Sikh groups have objected to media use of the "Asian" description saying that the culprits were "almost always of Pakistani origin" and "Muslim". Men alleged to be part of a child-grooming ring in Rochdale were never brought to justice because the evidence of teenage victims was not pursued, according a former police officer. [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? He said the investigation was looking at cases in Rochdale dating back to 2003. 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. She says they got into a fight and he hit her in the face. [1] One 13-year-old victim recounted that, after being forced to have sex in exchange for vodka, her abuser immediately raped her again and gave her 40 to not say anything about the incident. [13], As a result of the CPS dropping the case, the police halted their investigation, which was resumed when a second girl made complaints of a similar nature in December 2009. The report also showed that more than 3,000 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in Greater Manchester in 2014. It took police 11 months to compile a file of evidence for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after interviewing the young victim from the takeaway on four separate occasions. Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester police, made a personal apology to three of the Rochdale victims. "He asked me to come upstairs and I didn't really think anything of it," she explained. "It made me feel like I was pretty. BBC Ones new drama Three Girls launched on Tuesday to five million viewers. It was only when she met Oliver in early 2012 that things started to change. "Eventually I moved out of the area as I couldn't stay there anymore.". In 2019, Amber, along with two other victims, with the help of the Centre for Womens Justice, issued a civil claim for damages against GMP and the director of public prosecutions (DPP). The uncomfortable truth would eventually come out despite the botched original police investigation which concluded the girl, who would later become the prosecutions star witness, was not credible. The man she accused of assaulting her walked free. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said that about 550 officers were working on Operation Doublet in May 2013. Cockbain and Brayley expressed concern that "findings were being overextended from a small, geographically concentrated sample to characterise an entire crime type". 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. Child sexual exploitation has been uncovered in towns, cities and counties all over the country and it affects both girls and boys from all backgrounds. NINE men who ran the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were eventually jailed for a string of offences in 2012. Torrance, CA. Shabir Ahmed, who abused dozens of vulnerable teenagers, was known as "Dadd Rochdale grooming gang members could be deported after judges uphold ruling to strip them of British citizenship Khan, who also trafficked a 15-year-old girl to others, using violence when she. In The Betrayed Girls, they speak to survivors, . Her mother was not allowed to be with her during the interview, and there was no mention of an appropriate adult. The review acknowledged that police officers might have discriminatory attitudes towards the victims, that the victims were interviewed by detectives without training in child exploitation and no strategy when victims returned to their abusers. The three-part series tells the story of the victims of an infamous child grooming and sex trafficking scandal in Rochdale, and continues on Wednesday night. [32], Wendy Shepherd, child sexual exploitation project manager for Barnardo's in the north of England, said that since she started working with the organisation, there has been "a shift from the men selling children in ones or twos to something that is much more organised in groups and networks. 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