Shed been the victim of abuse from the age of 14. But their nightmare was only just beginning . Lancashire 1996-11-05. I didnt know what that meant. She was held in custody for hours before being released on bail. Her mother was not allowed to be with her during the interview, and there was no mention of an appropriate adult. Copley said: "We apologise to the victims and we give them our assurance that lessons have been learned, changes have been made and we are determined to use this to continue making improvements. On one of those interviews a police officer can be heard yawning while repeatedly asking why she had put herself in such a vulnerable position. Find a Job One 13-year-old victim became pregnant and had an abortion. I asked Amber what gave her the strength to give evidence to the police, after what she had gone through. It formed a large part of the police investigation that became known as Operation Span. [16], The trial concluded in May 2012 with the nine convictions. 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. He shouted in court, "Where are the white people? At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. [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. What happened to the Rochdale grooming ring and how many men were found guilty in the child sex abuse scandal? She gave the police a list, at an early stage of Operation Span, with nicknames, telephone numbers and other details relating to offenders. "[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. Furious, Maggie vowed never to be part of such an investigation in future. Kabeer Hassan was sentenced to nine years for rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. it's reported matt hancock considered this to be a potent breach of the regulations And more than that, she was among a band of white girls who were being specifically targeted by a gang of largely Pakistani-heritage men because, as the trial judge would later acknowledge, the mens victims were not of your community or religion. "At first I felt really bad, dirty and ashamed. 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'. Abdul Rauf was sentenced to six years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. 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.. A CPS spokesman said it could not comment in the meantime. Blind to his grooming, the girls were soon trapped in a terrifying cycle of sexual and physical abuse. A tribunal heard Aziz, known as "the Master", has been told he will not be deported by the Home Office. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown. 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. She continued to receive phone calls from her abusers, and cars with drivers she recognised were parking outside. The staggering detail of how the victims in the Rochdale grooming scandal were treated exposed a system that was failing some of the most vulnerable children in our society This video cannot be. I didnt want other people to feel how I felt. Her courage and Olivers support resulted in a database of abusers whom she identified by names, car registrations, telephone numbers and addresses. But the situation changed and she was raped by one of the men. The men led the girls to believe they were in relationships with some of them, and it was normal to have sex. These involved the grooming and sexual exploitation of several girls, aged in their early teens. Without Ambers initial evidence there might never have been a trial at all. 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. As a result of police failures to respond to evidence, the men who had groomed the three children were able to continue . Fits all sizes comfortably. She told me: Police werent arsed with us, really. Finally, after a gruelling 18 months and several hearings, the judge threw the case out. Mohammed Sajid was sentenced to 12 years for rape, sexual activity with a girl under 16, trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. She walked out, refusing to go along with this decision, and was forbidden from speaking to Amber. [14] The CPS's original decision was overturned in 2011 when a new chief prosecutor for the region, Nazir Afzal, a first generation British-Pakistani,[15] was appointed. independent.co.uk. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? The Manchester Evening News reports how the former delivery driver and dad-of-four encouraged his victimsto call him daddy. This vulnerable girl had been failed.. She was being raped. 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 organisation defined underage grooming as any situation where a child or young person received a gift in exchange for sexual favours. The court heard how the men - eight of Pakistani origin and one from Afghanistan - gave their victims drink and drugs before passing them round for sex. There was a string of different inquiries into what went wrong. But she added: "They're just brainwashing you so you think you love them so you do what they say. had learned about the investigation but after approaching GMP we were told to hold off until the victims had been spoken to. [I] cant remember exactly what they said, but it was something along the lines of being a madam, she recalled. 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'. An External Reference Group, consisting of independent experts on child sexual exploitation . 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. Ive got a box in the back of my head, and I just put it all in there and its locked away.. I push thoughts about the abuse out of my head. 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". [10] The gang worked to secure underage girls to rape and exploit.[11][12]. In response to Ambers claim that it was wrong to name her on the indictment, it says it was both legally and tactically the correct course to take. The second woman was 14 when the abuse began. A new investigation, dubbed Operation Span, was launched. Most of you were many years older than they were. It was then she told police for the first time what was going on. 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. Girls aged between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gang. They contend that clouding the issue by calling them "Asians" is unfair towards other groups and detrimental to a frank discussion. She was later forced into prostitution and at 13, became pregnant by one of the men, Adil Khan, and had an abortion. [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. All three men from Rochdale involved in the appeal were found guilty of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16 and trafficking for sexual exploitation following. "I tried to say no in a nice way, but he wasn't having it.". Something went wrong, please try again later. [24], The case raised a serious debate about whether the crimes were racially motivated. The investigation slowly built a compelling case, away from the public gaze. Business. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the woman, who cannot be identified, said she was forced to have sex with up to five different men in a day, at least four times a week. Khan, Rauf and Aziz were convicted of conspiracy and trafficking for sexual exploitation charges. 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 . Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. Id been used. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. NINE men who ran the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were eventually jailed for a string of offences in 2012. In some cases they were driven round Rochdale and Oldham to be made to have sex with paying customers. The first victim, who was 15 when the abuse began, told the police what had been happening to her in August 2008. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) investigated Kabeer Hassan and another man, aged 59. [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. Casemiro has emerged as a leader at Man Utd this season and Erik ten Hag has hailed the influence of the Brazilian midfielder. Read about our approach to external linking. A 15-year-old girl was ordered to have sex with takeaway worker Kabeer Hassan as a birthday "treat", the judge told the court. It was unfortunate that it was about attitudes towards teenagers. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. They werent bothered when youre from a shit home. She described the Rochdale case as "even more disgusting" than cases of girls being passed around street gangs, as the perpetrators "were grown men, some of them religious teachers or running businesses, with young families of their own. 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. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Grooming victim: "What they did to me was evil. One of their victims tells her story. 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.. Colin Veitch, Tayport Fife 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 trusted police that I would be helped this time. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said that about 550 officers were working on Operation Doublet in May 2013. 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. Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, are . The men from Rochdale and Oldham were found guilty of offences including rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Despite one victim going to the police in 2008 to report the child grooming, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute two men, invoking the witness's lack of credibility. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Even though she had been a victim, she was accused of being involved in the grooming. O-2246. Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley said that, at the time of the earlier investigation, "there was a strong target driven focus, predominantly on serious acquisitive crime. The grooming and subsequent abuse - which centred around the town of Heywood - began when the woman, now aged 19, was a 15-year-old schoolgirl. [23], In March 2015, ten men aged between 26 and 45 were charged with serious sex offences against seven females aged between 13 and 23 at the time. 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.. Jailing them, Judge Gerald Clifton said: You have all been convicted by the jury after a long trial of grave sexual offences which were committed between the spring of 2008 and 2010. 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. 'No one told me it wasn't normal to be hospitalised for period pains. 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. Adil Khan, then 42, and also of Rochdale was convicted of trafficking a child within the UK for sexual exploitation and received eight years. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Handout pictures released by Greater Manchester police in 2012 show eight of nine men convicted in connection with the child sexual exploitation ring. You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk, Grooming gang member complains over treatment, Anger as child grooming gang member seen in town, Calls to deport 'appalling' grooming trio, Grooming trio to lose British citizenship, 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, China looks at reforms to deepen Xi's control, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. The investigation was suddenly scrapped with no-one arrested or charged. How long have Keir Starmer and Sue Gray been secretly cooking up their plot? Nazir Afzal, the newly-appointed chief crown prosecutor for the north west, reversed the decision not to prosecute the two who had been arrested and eventually authorised the charging of ten men in June 2011. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. Two members of the grooming gang the gangs ringleader Shabir Ahmed and Kabeer Hassan were arrested and released on bail. Although police interviewed a total of 56 men on suspicion of abuse, only a handful were tried. In some cases those girls were raped, callously, viciously and violently. One woman said she welcomed "some accountability" but did not believe GMP had "really changed their ways". 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. 17 miles | Rochdale, Manchester Features: Front+Back Dual cover,360 protection. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Top row, left to right, Abdul Rauf, Hamid Safi, Mohammed Sajid and Abdul Aziz; bottom row, left to right, Abdul Qayyum, Adil Khan, Mohammed Amin and Kabeer Hassan, Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of a gang of Asian men who groomed young white girls for sex. Abdul Aziz, then 41 and a married dad-of-three, of Rochdale, was convicted of trafficking for sexual exploitation and received a nine year sentence. Sheer lack of resource, and also the fact that their bosses seemed reluctant to grasp the nettle for fear of being branded racist, contributed to delays in the investigation. "It made me feel like I was pretty. 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. It was like a casual, Oh, bring your friends. She was a vulnerable child, being sexually abused, controlled and in fear. 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. Critics say the delays meant more girls were left to be abused while the criminal justice system slowly changed its course. Now we have to confront forced marriage among Travellers', "Rochdale paedophile ringleader is named", "Rochdale child sex ring: nine men jailed", "Rochdale Child Sex Ring: 'Master', 'Tiger' and Seven Others Guilty of Rape and Trafficking", "Rochdale grooming leader guilty of child rape", "Rochdale grooming trial: Nine men jailed", "Members of Rochdale grooming gang face deportation to Pakistan", "Arrests made in second Rochdale sex grooming scandal", "Police vow to arrest even more child sex suspects", "Ten men charged over Rochdale child abuse claims", "Revealed: conspiracy of silence on UK sex gangs", "Rochdale grooming trial: Police accused of failing to investigate paedophile gang for fear of appearing racist", "Rochdale grooming trial: Asian grooming gangs, the uncomfortable issue", "Report 'downplays sex abuse by Asian men', "Quitting the English Defence League: When Tommy Met Mo", "Sexually exploited children are at further risk in care, says Barnardo's", "Child sex trafficking study sparks exaggerated racial stereotyping", "Grooming offences committed mostly by Asian men, says ex-Barnardo's chief", "Rochdale featured in sex grooming documentary", "Heywood: Rochdale town at the centre of child sex ring", "Why the Rochdale 'grooming trial' wasn't about race", "Complaints over use of 'Asian' label in grooming cases", "It's time to stop using the word 'Asians', "UK Hindus, Sikhs protest 'Asian' label for culprits", "Rochdale taxi firm boss in 'race choice' U-turn", "Child grooming and sexual exploitation: are South Asian men the UK media's new folk devils? "[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. My name has been dragged through the mud. 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. A chance to stop the gang was missed in 2008 and both the police and the CPS were forced to apologise for their failings. 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. He said the actions of criminals who thought "white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused" were "bringing shame on our community. It was absolute disrespect that vulnerable young people did not have a voice. [55], Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 10:03, UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, List of sexual abuses perpetrated by groups, Post-assault treatment of sexual assault victims, "Rochdale grooming trial: gang convicted for sex trafficking", "Rochdale child sex ring case: respected men who preyed on the vulnerable", "Rochdale grooming trial: Nine found guilty of child sex charges", "Rochdale grooming trial: how the case unfolded", "Rochdale child sex ring: did political correctness delay justice? 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. When we met in a hotel in Rochdale last month, Amber was accompanied by Maggie Oliver, a former police detective who walked out of the job in protest at the way Amber had been treated. Nine men between 24 and 38 years old were arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child. Behind the scenes, however, there was consternation. Were told 84% of grooming gangs are Asian. The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England.Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012. [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. They dont give a fuck when youre not from a wealthy background.. 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. A separate civil claim launched by the women against the Crown Prosecution Service is ongoing. [32] The inquiry issued its final report in November 2013. 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. A SURVIVOR of a Rotherham grooming gang says she knew all along a teenager was posing as a "fake" victim of sexual abuse. 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. ", 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. etween 2008 and 2010, a child abuse ring that came to be known as part of the grooming gang phenomenon operated in Rochdale. 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. The vile group exploited girls as young as 13 and were. Rauf and Khan only renounced their Pakistani citizenship in September of the same year after the Court of Appeal ruling. "He asked me to come upstairs and I didn't really think anything of it," she explained. In October 2010 the M.E.N. 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. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Not one charged never, why? She added: "The danger with saying that the problem is with one ethnicity is that then people will only be on the lookout for that group and will risk missing other threats. 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. But after a while it had been going on for so long and with so many different men, I didn't feel anything towards it anymore. Brand new in box. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? The force settled the claim before the matter got to court. 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. [35] "The citations are correct but they have been taken out of context," Cockbain told The Independent; "Nor do they acknowledge the small sample size of the original research, which focused on just two large cases." [44], One study suggested that the British media's portrayal of South Asian men as perpetrators of sexual violence against white victims is an example of a moral panic. 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. 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. 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[5] The girls were mainly White British. Social services became involved when she started to arrive at school dirty and sometimes smelling of alcohol. Cryer said, "Neither the police nor social services would touch those cases. Who were the men in the Rochdale grooming gang and what happened to them? 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.