Finally, officers did not challenge a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute. Rochdale grooming scandal Nine men who abused girls as young as 13 were convicted over a child sex grooming ring, guilty of 21 counts of sexual abuse over a two-year period. Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, are . [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. A much bigger case had been built but, importantly, he simply believed his star witness. [32] The inquiry issued its final report in November 2013. "It made me feel like I was pretty. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Blind to his grooming, the girls were soon trapped in a terrifying cycle of sexual and physical abuse. "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. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white. The company's owner said that due to requests, clients could choose to have a white driver but this was reversed after 50 Asian drivers protested. [I] cant remember exactly what they said, but it was something along the lines of being a madam, she recalled. Greater Manchester Police have arrested a number of suspects involved in historical grooming gang crimes committed against women between 2002 and 2006 in Rochdale, England, one of the country's most notorious grooming gang epicentres. The vile group exploited girls as young as 13 and were. Read about our approach to external linking. Her complaint was not taken seriously and she carried on being abused by the gang until December 2008 when she fell pregnant and moved away. 2023 BBC. Pat Hurst, PA. October 26, 2022, 12:21 PM. [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. Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others using violence when she complained. The second woman was 14 when the abuse began. [22] Suggestions emerged that police and social work departments failed to act when details of the gang emerged for fear of appearing racist, and vulnerable white teenagers being groomed by Pakistani men were ignored. The abuse of minor female children that occurred in 2008 and 2009 centred around two takeaways in Heywood near Rochdale. The other three are Adil Khan, Qari Abdul Rauf and Abdul Aziz. The third woman, who was also 12 at the time, was punched in the face by one of her abusers but was herself arrested for harassment. Rochdale grooming gang members lose appeal against deportation to Pakistan Two men who were part of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang have lost an appeal against deportation back to. It was reported he would be deported back to Pakistan following the conclusion of his sentence. She told me: So it didnt happen to anybody else. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? Furious, Maggie vowed never to be part of such an investigation in future. "[2][11] Shabir Ahmed's threatening behaviour and calling Judge Gerald Clifton a "racist bastard" resulted in him being banned from the court for the sentencing hearing. The organisation defined underage grooming as any situation where a child or young person received a gift in exchange for sexual favours. But in court, she was portrayed by the prosecution and defence as an assistant pimp. [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. We were making referrals from 2004, very explicit referrals, referrals which absolutely highlighted for protective services that young people were incredibly vulnerable, she said. . Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, Harry: I always felt different to rest of family, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, Nelson's 97th-minute stunner gives Arsenal victory. The Independent Office for Police Conduct quoted a chief inspector on the sexual abuse cases in Rotherham saying "With it being Asians, we can't afford for this to be coming out" - cementing the. Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. How long have Keir Starmer and Sue Gray been secretly cooking up their plot? Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. You have only got my kind here. In some cases they were driven round Rochdale and Oldham to be made to have sex with paying customers. [34], A report by The Times on 5 January 2011, related to convictions for child sex grooming in the North and Midlands. Finally, she has been exonerated. Three trials were conducted where jurors were told of how these men preyed specifically on young girls under the age of 16 from vulnerable backgrounds. Two men who were part of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang have lost an appeal against deportation back to Pakistan following a seven-year legal battle, immigration judges have ruled. Although police interviewed a total of 56 men on suspicion of abuse, only a handful were tried. A Serious Case Review published in 2013 concluded that the authorities 'struggled to empathise' with the girls, partly because they were from poor backgrounds, giving them a 'skewed picture of their behaviour'. "I was scared telling them, because I didn't know what the consequences would be from the men. There was a string of different inquiries into what went wrong. [52], In December 2013, the case review by Rochdale County was leaked, which highlighted findings from an internal police investigation. 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. But the investigation, according to one officer who was involved, was a car crash. Mohammed Sajid, then 35 and of Rochdale, was convicted of one count of rape, sexual activity with a girl under 16 and trafficking for sexual exploitation and was jailed for 12 years. Even when the authorities did recognise the problem, their slow reaction allowed the abusers to carry on exploiting their victims for years. Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet Amber was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will never end. [8], Some gang members told the court the girls were willing participants and happy having sex with the men. revealed by the telegraph were allegedly sent in 2020 after mr. farage shared a video of himself drinking at a pub a fortnight earlier. By Posted jordan schnitzer house In strengths and weaknesses of a volleyball player For other inquiries, Contact Us. [22] Operation Doublet was launched at the same time as an investigation into child grooming and sexual abuse in the region. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Now they werent prepared to do that. 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. She says she was never informed by police either that she was no longer being treated as a victim, or that none of those she alleged to be her abusers was to be prosecuted for her abuse. [18] Among the incidents recorded by the police were a 15-year-old victim too drunk to recall being raped by 20 men, one after the other; and another victim so drunk that she vomited over the side of the bed as she was being raped by two men. funfetti pancake mix cookies rochdale grooming case details. If such people know they have been 'rumbled', and they will sense it by the way people look at, behave and react to them, it will help disrupt their activities. Sign up and we will email you daily with the best of our political and news coverage while also giving you a taste of our most-popular lifestyle, opinion and personal blogs. But wheres the evidence? According to legal documents, there was growing evidence from the early 2000s that gangs of predominantly Asian men were grooming, trafficking and sexually abusing mostly white working-class girls in the town. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said that about 550 officers were working on Operation Doublet in May 2013. One example mentioned was the issue of child protection for one of the victims, which was discussed in 40 meetings, without any record of police attendance. "[45], In May 2017, the BBC broadcast Three Girls, a miniseries about the case. [9] The men were aged between 24-59 and all knew each other. Two girls aged 13 and 15 and a 13-year-old boy were groomed by the three men between September and October 2014 after repeatedly going missing from care. Leeds man Robert Glendinning was jailed at Bradford Crown Court yesterday after a judge heard details of his repeated abuse of the children in the late 1970s. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 2023 BBC. Finally, after a gruelling 18 months and several hearings, the judge threw the case out. Nothing happened. In December 2013 a further five men were jailed after an investigation into the sexual abuse of a girl was reopened following the exposure of police failings. We need to remember and learn from the mistakes of the past to ensure they are not repeated. She told me: Police werent arsed with us, really. 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. And Ive done nothing wrong I was a victim of these men at the age of 14. "[32] Further research has been pursued since late 2011 by the Office of the Children's Commissioner. [5], In March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate the child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. Handout pictures released by Greater Manchester police in 2012 show eight of nine men convicted in connection with the child sexual exploitation ring. In 2015 three men were sentenced for a string of child sexual offences that took place in Rochdale. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. 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. Rochdale grooming case - what really happened? Cast list: Playbook is told Theresa May, Hunt and Deputy PM Dominic Raab all plan to go to Windsor. They added that although the abuse was happening "in plain sight" and despite police and social services having the names of the men involved and their victims, a police operation to tackle the gangs was closed down abruptly in 2004. 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. One delivered a takeaway to my house a few weeks back, she tells me. Critics say the delays meant more girls were left to be abused while the criminal justice system slowly changed its course. "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. The M.E.N's crime reporter John Scheerhout gives his insight into the BBC dramatisation of the Rochdale grooming case What happened to the Rochdale grooming ring and how many men were found guilty in the child sex abuse scandal? The review recommended the Greater Manchester Police establish a monitoring system and commit to maintaining a child sexual exploitation team. 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. "Eventually I moved out of the area as I couldn't stay there anymore.". [17], Victims were physically assaulted and raped by as many as five men at a time,[1] or obliged to have sex with "several men in a day, several times a week". Social media companies assisting MTU in wake of cyber attack, High Court hears,In an update to the court the judge was told that 6GB of data taken from MTU's IT system had been made available for publication by the hackers. The victims, many of whom were from difficult backgrounds and therefore particularly vulnerable, were plied with drugs, alcohol and fast food, and then taken to chill houses across the north of England to be abused. Lawyers for Rauf said the law demands consistency of treatment and although Rauf could regain his Pakistani nationality simply by signing a form, he refuses to do so because he does not want to be deported. Afterwards, she told me: I went home, put it to the back of my mind to be honest. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Stephen Watson QPM, has met and personally apologised to three victims of grooming gangs in Rochdale for a catalogue of investigative failings that prevented their abusers from being brought to justice. They were. independent.co.uk. The networks of men come from different backgrounds: in the North and Midlands many have been British Asians; in Devon it was white men; in Bath and Bristol, Afro-Caribbeans; in London, all ethnic mixes, whites, Iraqis, Kurds, Afghans, Somalis". On one occasion, she was picked up by police on the moors, miles outside Manchester, and told officers she told a man she did not want to sleep with him and he had taken her coat, thrown orange juice over her, and left her to walk home with no socks or shoes on. [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". The report also showed that more than 3,000 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in Greater Manchester in 2014. Molly Windsor, Liv Hill and Ria Zmitrowicz feature as a trio of girls drawn into the frightening world of sexual exploitation. Kabeer Hassan was sentenced to nine years for rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. The tribunal had heard how all three were liable to be deprived of UK citizenship and deported as they also held Pakistani nationality, and then-home secretary Theresa May ruled it would be "conducive to the public good". The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. Amber was also threatened at gunpoint by a man whom she subsequently identified to the police. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. Operation Span was the investigation launched in December 2009 into allegations made against the individuals who were convicted in 2012, and others. After a while, the girl was being driven to different houses or flats where there would be other men waiting. 08 April 2021 The Rochdale grooming scandal was one of the most horrific cases of child sexual abuse in recent times. The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. A group of twenty men were found guilty in October 2018 of running a child grooming gang in Huddersfield, with the men being convicted of 120 offences against 15 different girls. Running though them is repeated mentions of the fact that many in authority believed that the girls had brought the abuse on themselves. The picture which emerged was one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, who were being targeted for sexual abuse and written off by authorities who believed the girls were making their own choices. I trusted police that I would be helped this time. "I felt let down," she said. Between 2003 and 2014, Rowbotham made more than 180 attempts to alert police and social services but was told the witnesses were not reliable. These involved the grooming and sexual exploitation of several girls, aged in their early teens. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? May stated the revocations were "conducive to the public good". Police said the victims were from chaotic, council estate backgrounds and as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang. "What they did to me was evil, they ripped away my dignity, my self-esteem," she said. Most of you were many years older than they were. 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.. 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. She was later forced into prostitution and at 13, became pregnant by one of the men, Adil Khan, and had an abortion. The apology was made after a review by the Independent Police Complaints Commission "examined the conduct and actions of 13 officers who were involved in Operation Span and the policing of Rochdale Division." [28], Ann Cryer, Labour MP for Keighley, recalled in a BBC documentary filmed in 2012 that she had worked with the families of the victims involved, and had been "round at the police station virtually every week" and was "begging" both the police and social services to do something. Nine men were convicted of being part of the child sexual exploitation ring, Nazir Afzal regrets that the CPS dropped the original grooming case, Harry: I always felt different to rest of family, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Canadian grandma helps police snag phone scammer. 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. Mr Watson told the women it was "a matter of profound personal regret that your childhood was so cruelly impacted by the dreadful experiences which you endured". [1] The abusers paid small sums of money for the encounters. Willmer added: "We think this is the tip of the iceberg", although she cautioned against treating the matter as a race crime: "It's a criminal thing. "[29] Cryer had attempted to reach the Muslim community and persuade it to take action: "I went to a friend of mine, who was a local councillor and happened to be a Muslim and therefore able to represent me to the elders, because I thought it was a good move to try to get those elders involved. A key member of the team was Detective Constable Maggie Oliver whose task was to convince the victims to speak to the police. [32] Ella Cockbain and Helen Brayley pointed out, "There is no criminal offence of 'on-street grooming' and as a result it is very difficult to measure the extent of the crime based on court statistics. In Rochdale, which is home to approximately 20,000 people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, far-right activists spied an opportunity. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. After the court case, social services started to pursue Amber, with the aim of having her children removed. NINE men who ran the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were eventually jailed for a string of offences in 2012. Without Ambers initial evidence there might never have been a trial at all. [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. In this case the judge did indicate his belief that the Rochdale gang had deliberately sought victims outside their own community. It was unfortunate that it was about attitudes towards teenagers. One 13-year-old victim became pregnant and had an abortion. A chance to stop the gang was missed in 2008 and both the police and the CPS were forced to apologise for their failings. One woman said she welcomed "some accountability" but did not believe GMP had "really changed their ways". [53], On 13 March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. The hearing was adjourned with a decision on deportation expected later this year. Lawyers for the victims - one who was aged 14 and two who were just 12 at the time of the abuse - successfully argued their human rights were breached by the force failing to protect them. Grooming gangs were able to operate unchallenged, to do part of their work in public spaces, with the confidence of being unchallenged due to cultural sensitivities. This reluctance was because shed been in this position before. [25][26][27] A report by the deputy children's commissioner in 2012 said that 33% of child sex abuse by gangs in Britain was committed by British Asians, where Asians are 7% of the population, but concluded that it was "irresponsible" to dwell on the data. The trial of nine of the grooming gang was pending, and in the meantime, despite never having been informed, arrested or cautioned, Amber was added to the indictment by the CPS as a co-conspirator. Four members of the grooming gang including ringleader Shabir Ahmed face deportation to Pakistan. He was a driver for Eagle Taxis for 14 years and was known as "Car Zero". The abuse took place in Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, in the early 2000s. A ringleader of a grooming gang has avoided being deported so it would therefore be wrong to deport two other gang members, a tribunal has heard. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. He said that of convictions involving child sexual exploitation, 87% were of British Pakistani men and it was a significant problem for that community. After a troubled upbringing, Amber had been placed on the child protection register as being at risk of sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. To date, the CPS has not accepted any failure on its part and instead continues to herald this case as the first successful prosecution of a grooming gang. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? [19] Read about our approach to external linking. Vulnerable children some as young as 11 were targeted by child abusers in the town of Telford, Shropshire, over 40 years. Oliver had been headhunted to join the grooming gangs case as detective and victim liaison officer in 2010 because of her experience working with vulnerable victims. I gave hours of interviews, reliving all the abuse. 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. Amber was understandably reluctant to trust the police. 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. he'd been at a trump rally in the states under lockdown rules. It was in nearby Oldham, in 2001, that tensions between white and Asian locals, exacerbated by neo-Nazi provocateurs, had boiled over into a riot. Their treatment encompasses a range of catastrophic errors in one of the countrys most harrowing child sexual abuse scandals. After the trials conclusion, there were public apologies from the police, the council and prosecutors for failing the victims. My name has been dragged through the mud. In a case with similarities to the grooming gang scandals of Rotherham and Rochdale, girls were groomed, drugged and raped by paedophiles and victims warn the crimes are still happening. Abdul Rauf was sentenced to six years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. He said: We now know that Rochdale was not an isolated case. On one occasion he ordered a girl aged 15 to have sex with Kabeer Hassan, as a "treat" for his birthday Hassan then raped the girl. had learned about the investigation but after approaching GMP we were told to hold off until the victims had been spoken to. "I know they believed me, they said to me at the end that something should have been done.". However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. It was said Khan, who is married with one child, fathered the child of a 13-year-old victim. 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. 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. Five years later she won an apology and compensation from social services. Read about our approach to external linking. In 2012 nine men were sentenced for the abuse and exploitation of young, mostly white girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Speaking in 2012 Judge Gerald Clifton said the men treated the girls "as though they were worthless and beyond respect". A decision has also yet to be made on whether two of the men, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, will be deported back to Pakistan after they appealed against an original ruling. It drew statistics from organisations such as Barnardo's but the findings were considered inconclusive by expert academics because not all the figures had been compiled in the same way and ethnicity had not always been noted with each reported crime. They dont give a fuck when youre not from a wealthy background.. Eleanor Williams, now 22, constructed a web of lies that saw in 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). Fits all sizes comfortably. 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. 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. When police were called to a report of a 15-year-old girl smashing up the Balti House takeaway in Heywood, they had no idea that the crime they. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 17 miles | Rochdale, Manchester Features: Front+Back Dual cover,360 protection. It is worth remembering though that none of it would be happening without a frightened, angry girl who had been raped venting her rage in a takeaway in Heywood and then being courageous enough to speak about what had happened. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown. In subsequent cases, the racial and religious background of perpetrators have been exploited by some - but there have also been accusations that authorities were slow to act on concerns for fear of being dubbed racist. [2][3][4] The men were British Pakistanis, which led to discussion on whether the failure to investigate them was linked to the authorities' fear of being accused of racial prejudice. It made me sick to my stomach. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Sun Online looks at the group from Rochdale and Oldham, who exploited girls as young as 13. [24], The case raised a serious debate about whether the crimes were racially motivated. The men from Rochdale and Oldham were found guilty of offences including rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Two members of the Rochdale grooming gang are set to be deported to Pakistan after a seven-year legal battle following a ruling by immigration judges. Business. 2023 BBC. Team Management: Establish & manage globally distributed, co-located, virtual, cross-functional, high performing self-organizing teams leveraging onsite-offshore delivery models. Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her. He said the actions of criminals who thought "white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused" were "bringing shame on our community. Then, shortly after the ID parade, Oliver was told that they were no longer going to use Ambers evidence. Lancashire 1996-11-05. Cockbain and Brayley expressed concern that "findings were being overextended from a small, geographically concentrated sample to characterise an entire crime type". It is committed by abusers from all walks of life, ethnicities, cultures and classes and it robs children of their childhoods and tears families apart.