Greater Manchester police failed vulnerable girls in multiple ways, from lack of oversight to use of untrained CID staff
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© Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA Rochdale shop displays a bulletin on the arrest of nine men on child sexual exploitation charges in 2011.
A catalogue of police failures allowed sex-grooming gangs to flourish in Rochdale, according to a damning, leaked report that is published on Friday. Among the failings identified in the 300-page report, untrained detectives were used to investigate child exploitation and there was a lack of resources and oversight.

The serious case review was announced by Rochdale Council last year after nine Asian men were convicted of the systematic grooming and sexual abuse of white girls in Greater Manchester. The findings of the review have resulted in an acknowledgement by Greater Manchester police [GMP] that the force has let down a number of vulnerable girls who were groomed by gangs for sexual abuse.

An internal police investigation, highlighted in the serious case review, also found a failure to recognise abuse.

The internal police review found that:

- Officers failed to challenge a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute.

- There was a lack of resources and managerial support for the investigations, initially led by CID, despite formal requests.

- Detectives without training in child sexual exploitation were used to interview potential victims.

- There was a lack of managerial oversight for investigations in 2008 and 2009.

- There was a lack of strategies to respond to frequent "runaways", which allowed them to return to their abusers.

- There was a recognition that there may have been discriminatory attitudes among police officers towards the victims.

But despite the list of acknowledged problems, the police made just one recommendation - that the force's public protection division should ensure continued participation in Project Phoenix, which has been set up to direct a multi-agency approach to child sexual exploitation in the region.

The serious case review panel raised questions about the police response and made two further recommendations: that GMP should establish a system to monitor and review how it escalates safeguarding cases, and that it commits to maintaining a child sexual exploitation team and to working proactively with Rochdale council.

Police also admitted that of 40 meetings to discuss child protection for one of the victims, there is no record of police attendance or involvement at any of them. The report argues that "this represents a serious weakness for the police" and that concerns about police attendance were raised in 2009.

"As a result, the review has been left with an incomplete and unsatisfactory picture of the involvement of the police in the routine child protection processes," it concludes.

Simon Danczuk, the local Labour MP, said police need to show better leadership. "Senior police officers keep talking about deploying more resources, but they're sending out untrained officers who cannot win the trust of victims. We need better leadership on this issue," he said.

The serious case review was announced in September 2012, four months after the grooming gang was convicted. The men were jailed for between four and 19 years for the abuse of five girls, some as young as 13. It is believed there may be up to 50 victims in all.
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© The MirrorGang who plied girls with drink and drugs then abused them, found guilty
The trial resulted in a national debate over the role of gangs of largely Pakistani men in grooming white girls. The police and local authority in Rochdale came in for heavy criticism when details emerged of what had been happening.

The men, aged between 24 and 59, plied victims, who hung around two takeaways in the area, with drink and drugs before the girls were "passed around" for sex.

One girl, aged 15 at the time and who was repeatedly raped, said in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that after she became pregnant, local social services told her parents she was a "prostitute" and that she had simply made a "lifestyle choice".

The girl had also reported the abuse to a police officer - who simply yawned.

One police whistleblower welcomed the report but commented that it had only scratched the surface of problems in the force.

Margaret Oliver, a detective constable within GMP who worked on the Rochdale grooming cases but resigned last year over the way the police treated the victims, said the report went only part of the way to exposing the mistakes within the force.

She said: "I have spoken to victims in the last week who still come face to face with their abusers in Rochdale because the police have failed to pursue them.

"If GMP had done its job properly, they would not be walking the streets. It was my job to persuade some of these young girls to come to trust the police to being on their side.

"But one of those who came forward - who was subjected to multiple rapes and was brave enough to identify her abusers in an ID parade - was added to the indictment as an offender as a tactical 'option' by the force," she said.

Sir Peter Fahy, the chief constable for Greater Manchester, said: "I think we all know that [child sexual exploitation] is the most complex and challenging area of policing right now and we are near the very beginning of a long journey in our understanding of it. It is GMP's top priority, and the welfare of these victims should now be at the very forefront of everything we do.

"The failings detailed in this report are unacceptable, and we should never lose sight of the fact that we have let down some innocent victims."