The grooming scandals in Rochdale and similar ones in other cities which involved Asian men, including Oxford and Rotherham, have fuelled fight-wing groups opposing multiculturalism and immigration. Following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, nine men were convicted in May 2012. The BBC reports Kabeer Hassan, then 25, of Oldham, was sentenced to nine years for rape and three years, concurrently, for the conspiracy conviction. [9] The men were aged between 24-59 and all knew each other. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said that about 550 officers were working on Operation Doublet in May 2013. 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. Wide elastic waistband with black edging. [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. 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 had uncovered would become a national scandal. Case studies 41. He continued: "GMP could and should have done much more to protect you and we let you down.". Later, Rochdale sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham told an inquiry that all the girls had been treated appallingly by protective services. It was only when she met Oliver in early 2012 that things started to change. [33] After members of the Rochdale gang were sentenced, the UK's Department for Education announced new funding for a specialist foster care scheme to protect vulnerable children in residential care, where some victims had been. The report makes recommendations for each of the agencies involved: CAFCASS; Rochdale MBC Children's Services (Targeted services, Safeguarding Children Unit, and Schools); Connexions Rochdale; Early Break (Young People's Drug and Alcohol Service) ; Greater Manchester Police; Pennine Acute NHS Trust; Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust; RMBC "[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. This resulted in Greater Manchester Police launching Operation Doublet to investigate further claims of abuse with 19 men so far being convicted. The abuse of minor female children that occurred in 2008 and 2009 centred around two takeaways in Heywood near Rochdale. [10] The gang worked to secure underage girls to rape and exploit.[11][12]. Amber still sees those whom she says raped, beat and tortured her, out and about in Rochdale. Writing in The Guardian, Cockbain and Tufail wrote of the report that "The two-year study by the Home Office makes very clear that there are no grounds for asserting that Muslim or Pakistani-heritage men are disproportionately engaged in such crimes, and, citing our research, it confirmed the unreliability of the Quilliam claim". Sun Online looks at the group from Rochdale and Oldham, who exploited girls as young as 13. The second woman was 14 when the abuse began. [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. . 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. 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. It emerged at the immigration tribunal hearing in London, Aziz had already been told he will not be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported. They had to be assured that, as victims of sex crimes, they would be guaranteed anonymity for life. 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. [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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. Part of HuffPost News. 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. After the trials conclusion, there were public apologies from the police, the council and prosecutors for failing the victims. She later went on to positively identify a number of offenders, which enabled charges to be brought against them all. She told me: So it didnt happen to anybody else. He was a married father-of-five and religious studies teacher at a local mosque. It made me sick to my stomach. 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. 2023 BBC. When a local teenager was caught smashing up a glass chiller at the Balti House takeaway in Heywood in August 2008, police dismissed it as a simple act of vandalism. They were Himanshu Bhargav MBA, PMP, CSM, CBAP, AWS Cloud Practitioner 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'. It was reported he would be deported back to Pakistan following the conclusion of his sentence. rochdale grooming case details Furious, Maggie vowed never to be part of such an investigation in future. [1][8] Most of the men were married and well-respected within their community. The inspector concluded the abuse could have stopped if the authorities had stepped in sooner. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Ringleader Shabir Ahmed was originally handed a 19 year sentence which was upped to 22 years for repeatedly raping a girl. But in court, she was portrayed by the prosecution and defence as an assistant pimp. [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. [31], In late 2011, the Office of the Children's Commissioner began a two-year long inquiry into child sexual exploitation by street gangs. She was later burnt repeatedly with a heated spoon when she refused to comply with the demands of a group of men, but was accused by police of inflicting the wounds on herself and arrested for disorderly behaviour. ", Higher Broughton: Stabbing outside McDonalds leaving boy injured, BREAKING: Boy, 15, in a serious condition after stabbing outside McDonalds, Firefighters tackle waste fire in Milnrow after 'explosion', Delays on M62 Westbound near Birchwood after vehicle overturned, Bolton: Five charged on suspicion of drug crimes, Met Office snow and weather forecast for where you live in Greater Manchester, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. Some of you acted as you did to satiate your lust, some of you to make money, all of you treated them as though they were worthless and beyond respect.. A CPS spokesman said it could not comment in the meantime. 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. 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. A new investigation, dubbed Operation Span, was launched. In Rochdale, which is home to approximately 20,000 people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, far-right activists spied an opportunity. Social media companies assisting MTU in wake of cyber attack, High "[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. Indeed one witness, said in the course of the trial that he did not wish to be seen with young white girls in his community in Oldham.. How close to the terrible truth was BBC's Three Girls? I hoped that I would be able to persuade the elders to go knocking on doors and say 'this behaviour is un-Islamic and I want it to stop because I'm going to tell the whole community about you and what youre doing if you dont'. Grooming victim: "What they did to me was evil. Two members of the grooming gang the gangs ringleader Shabir Ahmed and Kabeer Hassan were arrested and released on bail. Another five-year sentence was given to Abdul Qayyum for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children, while Hamid Safi received four years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Amber was also threatened at gunpoint by a man whom she subsequently identified to the police. Vulnerable children some as young as 11 were targeted by child abusers in the town of Telford, Shropshire, over 40 years. The case is another example of the worrying number of girls who . Actress Maxine Peake starred in the series as Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health aid worker who first uncovered the patterns of severe abuse in the area, but struggled to bring it to the attention of authorities. The first victim, who was 15 when the abuse began, told the police what had been happening to her in August 2008. "[32], The former head of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "For this particular type of crime, the street grooming of teenage girls in northern towns there is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in the prosecutions for such offences. Dan Wootton Tonight : GBN - Archive 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 men from Rochdale and Oldham were found guilty of offences including rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Pat Hurst, PA. October 26, 2022, 12:21 PM. 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. Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal - Wikipedia Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending Page 2 of 57 Operation Retriever 42 Operation Brooke 44 . Three Girls review a brave new focus on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. In October 2010 the M.E.N. She was vilified and nicknamed in the press as the Honey Monster. Then, shortly after the ID parade, Oliver was told that they were no longer going to use Ambers evidence. 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. "I was scared telling them, because I didn't know what the consequences would be from the men. "I tried to say no in a nice way, but he wasn't having it.". "[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. Police drove her home and told her they could not do anything because they did not have the man's name. Because she was not involved in the trial, and therefore did not give evidence, she had no opportunity to defend herself. 17 miles | Rochdale, Manchester Features: Front+Back Dual cover,360 protection. A separate civil claim launched by the women against the Crown Prosecution Service is ongoing. 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. In 2012 nine men were sentenced for the abuse and exploitation of young, mostly white girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. 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. Some of the men involved were arrested, tried and found guilty. The gang of nine men received jail sentences of between four and 19 years from a judge who said they treated their victims as though they were worthless and beyond any respect. They dont give a fuck when youre not from a wealthy background.. 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. 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. "[36] Narey rejected the idea that such gangs were specifically targeting white girls, but suggested vulnerable girls on the street were more likely to be white since Asian girls were subjected to strict parenting and were more likely to be kept off the streets. [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 15-year-old girl was ordered to have sex with takeaway worker Kabeer Hassan as a birthday "treat", the judge told the court. Now they werent prepared to do that. 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 overview report of the serious case review in respect of Young And Ive done nothing wrong I was a victim of these men at the age of 14. Although a court order prevented her being named, everyone in her local community knew who she was. Read about our approach to external linking. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Rochdale grooming gang: Wrong to deport members, tribunal told Rochdale victim: 'I was groomed at 14, then the courts came for my children' Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet 'Amber' was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will. The women, who have been backed by lawyers from the Centre for Women's Justice charity, had brought a legal claim against the force. The Rotherham case was one of several cases which prompted investigations looking into the claim that the majority of perpetrators from grooming gangs were 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 . She continued to receive phone calls from her abusers, and cars with drivers she recognised were parking outside. Beaten, abused, raped - but never believed by police, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims.