Sir Peter Fahy said some girls 'don't want to make a complaint because that means they go into the criminal justice system'. [9] The men were aged between 24-59 and all knew each other. He said there was no doubt she was a victim of horrendous abuse and exploitation and he accepted that the police response "could and should have been better". "[39], Nazir Afzal, who as the newly appointed chief crown prosecutor decided to bring the case to trial, said that sex, not race, was the key issue: "There is no community where women and girls are not vulnerable to sexual attack and that's a fact. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [21], Following the break up of the first sex ring in May 2012, the police made arrests in relation to another child sexual exploitation ring in Rochdale. 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. 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. That nightmare should have ended with the arrest and trial of the perpetrators, but instead the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and even social services treated her not as a victim but as a perpetrator. It was like a casual, Oh, bring your friends. She was a vulnerable child, being sexually abused, controlled and in fear. [I] cant remember exactly what they said, but it was something along the lines of being a madam, she recalled. [6] Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health worker who first recognised patterns of child abuse in the community and fought to bring these crimes to police attention, was made redundant in 2014. Nine men of mainly Pakistani heritage were convicted in 2012 after a long, complex trial for offences that happened in and around Rochdale in 2008 and 2009. While GMP has finally settled the claim, which includes the personal apology from the chief constable, the DPP has so far resisted. Read about our approach to external linking. [5] The girls were mainly White British. In relation to historical failures, he apologised to Daisy. 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. "Eventually I moved out of the area as I couldn't stay there anymore.". Finally, she has been exonerated. "Even though I was kicking and screaming in the back [of the police van] saying 'he's hit me or he's raped me', I was always the one that got arrested. She told me: So it didnt happen to anybody else. "[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. Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley said that, at the time of the earlier investigation, "there was a strong target driven focus, predominantly on serious acquisitive crime. 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. [2], The victims, vulnerable teenagers from deprived, dysfunctional backgrounds, were targeted in "honeypot locations" where young people congregated, such as takeaway food shops. A. Nothing happened. What about them? [32], Hilary Willmer, representing a Leeds-based support group for parents of sexually exploited girls, the Coalition for the Removal of Pimping (Crop), was quoted as saying "The vast majority [of] perpetrators are Pakistani Asians",[35] with sources inside Crop claiming a percentage as high as 80 per cent although, The Independent said that "Kurdish, Romanian and Albanian gangs were also involved". "[32] Further research has been pursued since late 2011 by the Office of the Children's Commissioner. Back in the police station, the girl who had just vandalised the takeaway provided a detailed account of the abuse and the perpetrators as well as evidence in the form of her underwear, which carried traces of one of her attackers' DNA. And then, in July 2009, an experienced CPS lawyer ruled the victim was not credible and decided that the two men who raped her should be released without charge. In this case the judge did indicate his belief that the Rochdale gang had deliberately sought victims outside their own community. One night in 2006, when she was just 14, a man became aggressive after she refused to have sex with him. The investigation was suddenly scrapped with no-one arrested or charged. Social services became involved when she started to arrive at school dirty and sometimes smelling of alcohol. But she added: "They're just brainwashing you so you think you love them so you do what they say. What the police and CPS did to me was worse than the abuse The apology will be a kind of a weight lifted from me. But the nightmare will never really be over. During that period, Amber by now pregnant and living in a one-room flat continued to be targeted by the grooming gangs. I shouldve been helped, not punished.. The victims were coerced and bribed into keeping quiet about the abuse by a combination of alcohol and drugs, food, small sums of money and other gifts. Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet Amber was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will never end. And more than that, she was among a band of white girls who were being specifically targeted by a gang of largely Pakistani-heritage men because, as the trial judge would later acknowledge, the mens victims were not of your community or religion. Of the three not convicted, one was cleared of all charges, the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of the second, and the third was not present at the trial after fleeing to Pakistan whilst on bail. "Most child sexual abuse gangs made up of white men, Home Office report says", "A new Home Office report admits grooming gangs are not a 'Muslim problem', "Rochdale sex-grooming gangs able to flourish due to police errors says report", Greater Manchester Police, Report into Rochdale CSE investigation, 13 March 2015, "No officers to be charged over Rochdale child abuse failure, say police", The Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board, Review of Multi-Agency Responses to the Sexual Exploitation of Children, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rochdale_child_sex_abuse_ring&oldid=1140279348, This page was last edited on 19 February 2023, at 10:03. Abdul Rauf was sentenced to six years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. Finally, after a gruelling 18 months and several hearings, the judge threw the case out. Even when the authorities did recognise the problem, their slow reaction allowed the abusers to carry on exploiting their victims for years. "What they did to me was evil, they ripped away my dignity, my self-esteem," she said. [1][2], The oldest person to be convicted, Shabir Ahmed,[16] was for a while the main trafficker of the victims. ", 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. At the time, she was living with an older victim but when she became pregnant by one of the men, she moved back in with her parents. When police arrived, she says they did not believe her version of events. A new investigation, dubbed Operation Span, was launched. There was a "shocking" inability to protect seven vulnerable girls from sexual exploitation, a report into the Rochdale grooming case has said. Shabir Ahmed, who abused dozens of vulnerable teenagers, was known as "Dadd This kind of institutional neglect of a whole sector of society must never happen again and we need programmes like Three Girls to remind us.. They werent bothered when youre from a shit home. "I wouldn't go out of the house for nine months on my own without my mum or dad, because I was frightened," she said. They ripped away all my dignity". There was a complete lack of appreciation of the world in which some of the girls lived - when in fact that should have framed every conversation . 10:45, 3 JUL 2017. The women, who cannot be named for. Because she was not involved in the trial, and therefore did not give evidence, she had no opportunity to defend herself. Another night - this time in 2007 - Daisy says she was burnt with a heated metal spoon as punishment for refusing to have sex with a man at a house party. 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. Abdul Aziz, 51, Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Rauf, 52,. As a result of police failures to respond to evidence, the men who had groomed the three children were able to continue . Some of the men involved were arrested, tried and found guilty. Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012. said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. "I've had a lot of problems in the past, suicide attempts and drinking, but now I know something is being done to prevent it happening again. "He asked me to come upstairs and I didn't really think anything of it," she explained. She walked out, refusing to go along with this decision, and was forbidden from speaking to Amber. Also cited were a lack of managerial oversight in 2008 and 2009 and lack of resources and managerial support for the investigations despite formal requests. Daisy had ambitions to become a social worker, to use her painful past to help others in the future. [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. Following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, nine men were convicted in May 2012. 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 first victim, who was 15 when the abuse began, told the police what had been happening to her in August 2008. We were making referrals from 2004, very explicit referrals, referrals which absolutely highlighted for protective services that young people were incredibly vulnerable, she said. 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. . [7] Actress Lesley Sharp played the police detective Margaret Oliver in the series. He said the actions of criminals who thought "white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused" were "bringing shame on our community. But not all. 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. 2023 BBC. Address: CA Torrance 4101 Torrance Blvd. Two worked for the same taxi firm and another two worked at a takeaway restaurant; some came from the same village in Pakistan and another two men shared a flat. The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. A second serious case review looked at a separate case involving a seventh girl. 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. Social workers focused on young people's high-risk behaviour and "not their vulnerability", the latest review found. 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