Girls were “left at the mercy” of paedophile grooming gangs for years in Rochdale because of failings by senior police and council bosses, a report has said. The damning 173-page review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse in Rochdale by Asian men.
Malcolm Newsam CBE, co-author of the report, said: “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.”
The Rochdale report follows publications by the same authors on grooming in Manchester and Oldham, which found authorities had again failed children leaving them in the clutches of paedophile gangs.
Mr Newsam, a renowned childcare expert, authored the report with Gary Ridgeway, a former detective superintendent, after allegations by whistleblowers Sara Rowbotham and Maggie Oliver in a BBC TV documentary, The Betrayed Girls, which aired in 2017.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham commissioned the authors to look at the issues highlighted by the women in the documentary.
The report said Ms Rowbotham, co-ordinator of the Crisis Intervention Team set up to support young people in Rochdale, and former GMP detective, Maggie Oliver, who resigned from the force in disgust, were “lone voices” who had flagged the clear evidence of “prolific serial rape of countless children in Rochdale.”
The report states there was “compelling evidence” of widespread, organised sexual abuse of children in Rochdale from as early as 2004 onwards, citing multiple reports of the involvement of groups of Asian men.
But the children’s unwillingness to make a formal complaint was repeatedly used as an excuse for not investigating.
In 2007, the Crisis Intervention Team led by Ms Rowbotham alerted GMP and Rochdale Council to the presence of an organised crime group involved.
GMP identified the ring-leaders, described as “prolific career criminals”, but did not investigate further because children were too frightened to assist.
