The real stories behind the girls who were repeatedly raped, threatened and beaten - then ignored by those in power
15.01.2024 - 15:25
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
"Countless children known to be at significant risk of harm were left unprotected and their abusers left to continue to exploit children with impunity."
A shameful paragraph from a damning new report which has found there was widespread child sexual exploitation and abuse over years in Rochdale but - despite being presented with a glut of evidence - both the police and the council failed to act and left children 'at the mercy' of paedophiles.
The report - authored by Malcolm Newsam, a renowned child care expert, and Gary Ridgeway, a former detective superintendent - lays bare in painful reading the vast extent of the abuse endured by children at the hands of older men. And crucially, it also reveals their harrowing stories; testimonies that were 'ignored' by all but a small team of NHS health workers who battled to get those in power to listen to them, and listen to the girls.
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Mr Newsam said a huge quantity of records and detailed case files of 59 children were researched for the review. A total of 111 children went on to be identified. The report found there was a 'significant probability' 74 of them were being sexually exploited. But of those 74, he said the review found only three children were 'appropriately protected by the statutory agencies'.
"In 48 of the cases, there were serious failures to protect them," said Mr Newsam at a press conference on Monday after the report's publication.
Investigators said they found 'a continued over-reliance' by police on the co-operation of child victims, despite 'the obvious coercion and control exhibited by their perpetrators'. Legal sanctions available at the time were also not used.
One former GMP detective
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