Girls left 'at the mercy' of Rochdale sex abuse gangs, says 'damning' review

Girls were "left at the mercy" of Rochdale paedophile gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses, according to a report.

The "damning" review documents multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) from 2004 to 2013 into the sex abuse scandal, said The Independent. The report highlights "apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse in Rochdale by Asian men". 

It also identifies "96 men still deemed a potential risk to children", said the news site, and these are "only a proportion" of the numbers involved in the abuse. 

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Successive police operations were "insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation", concluded report co-author Malcolm Newsam, a child protection specialist. And Rochdale Council "failed to prioritise" the protection of children who were being sexually exploited, he added. 

A child victim named as Amber gave "significant evidence", but GMP did not record the crimes and perpetrators were potentially left to continue their abuse, the report found.

"In one shocking case", reported the Daily Mail, GMP secretly took the aborted foetus of a 13-year-old rape victim and performed a DNA test on it without telling the girl or her parents

Victims were "badly failed", said Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who commissioned a series of independent reviews after he became mayor in 2017, following the BBC documentary "The Betrayed Girls".  

He praised whistleblowers, including health worker Sara Rowbotham and former GMP detective Maggie Oliver, who raised concerns despite "vocal criticism from authorities", said the BBC. 

GMP has apologised, with chief constable Stephen Watson saying that "one of the primary responsibilities of the police is to protect the vulnerable from the cruel and predatory, and in this regard, we failed you".

Rochdale Council leader Neil Emmott also apologised, and said that "far more rigorous practices are in place today to protect our children".