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. They had to be assured that, as victims of sex crimes, they would be guaranteed anonymity for life. The apology was made after a review by the Independent Police Complaints Commission "examined the conduct and actions of 13 officers who were involved in Operation Span and the policing of Rochdale Division." A 15-year-old girl was ordered to have sex with takeaway worker Kabeer Hassan as a birthday "treat", the judge told the court. These involved the grooming and sexual exploitation of several girls, aged in their early teens. It is committed by abusers from all walks of life, ethnicities, cultures and classes and it robs children of their childhoods and tears families apart. Part of HuffPost News. [48][49], A further investigation was carried out by the British government in December 2020, when the Home Office published their findings, showing that the majority of child sexual exploitation gangs were, in fact, composed of white men and not British Pakistani men.[50][51]. 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. Her mother was not allowed to be with her during the interview, and there was no mention of an appropriate adult. 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. What the police and CPS did to me was worse than the abuse The apology will be a kind of a weight lifted from me. But the nightmare will never really be over. [8], Some gang members told the court the girls were willing participants and happy having sex with the men. [45] In particular they pointed out that the inquiry by the Office of the Children's Commissioner[33] found that, while a majority of victims were white and a majority of perpetrators were men of South Asian descent, there were many cases where "perpetrators and their victims were ethnically diverse. Liverpool Crown Court heard the group plied five victims with drink and drugs and "passed them around" for sex. Tellingly, he added: I believe that one of the factors that led to that was that they were not of your community or religion. A significant proportion of cases were labelled as no further action needed and the leadership team were not interested in childrens social care. The book oers intimate details of the lives that they've never publicly revealed. 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'. It was said Khan, who is married with one child, fathered the child of a 13-year-old victim. Two members of a Rochdale grooming gang are to be deported to Pakistan after losing a seven-year legal fight to remain in Britain. While this is true, Amber believes that she was used as a scapegoat. [52], In December 2013, the case review by Rochdale County was leaked, which highlighted findings from an internal police investigation. 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. Their trial heard how young girls were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops, and were ferried to different flats in taxis where further abuse took place, sometimes with cash changing hands. [16], The trial concluded in May 2012 with the nine convictions. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. The uncomfortable truth would eventually come out despite the botched original police investigation which concluded the girl, who would later become the prosecutions star witness, was not credible. [22] Suggestions emerged that police and social work departments failed to act when details of the gang emerged for fear of appearing racist, and vulnerable white teenagers being groomed by Pakistani men were ignored. In 2015 three men were sentenced for a string of child sexual offences that took place in Rochdale. revealed by the telegraph were allegedly sent in 2020 after mr. farage shared a video of himself drinking at a pub a fortnight earlier. The Independent Office for Police Conduct quoted a chief inspector on the sexual abuse cases in Rotherham saying "With it being Asians, we can't afford for this to be coming out" - cementing the. "It's not a normal relationship when your boyfriend is getting you to sleep with all his friends for money.". What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? [5], In March 2015, Greater Manchester Police apologised for its failure to investigate the child sexual exploitation allegations more thoroughly between 2008 and 2010. Khan told the hearing: "I have a question for the Home Secretary, whether Mr Aziz was an angel and I am a devil?". After the court case, social services started to pursue Amber, with the aim of having her children removed. I asked Amber what gave her the strength to give evidence to the police, after what she had gone through. She specifically spoke of her abuse at the hands of two members of the gang who would later be jailed four years. [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? which was prompted by high profile cases of sexual grooming in towns including Rochdale and Rotherham. Paul Wilson, 21, admitted 47 charges including rape and grooming and must serve at least 15 years of a life term. A decision has also yet to be made on whether two of the men, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, will be deported back to Pakistan after they appealed against an original ruling. [32], Wendy Shepherd, child sexual exploitation project manager for Barnardo's in the north of England, said that since she started working with the organisation, there has been "a shift from the men selling children in ones or twos to something that is much more organised in groups and networks. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. He said that of convictions involving child sexual exploitation, 87% were of British Pakistani men and it was a significant problem for that community. She plans to become a social worker, partly due to the ordeal she suffered while still a vulnerable young girl. The testimony of one of the five victims of the Rochdale grooming ring revealed the depth of the exploitation she suffered. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. The testimony of one of the five victims of the Rochdale grooming ring revealed the depth of the exploitation she suffered. 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'. Cryer said, "Neither the police nor social services would touch those cases. Not just once - but repeatedly - by a gang of men who would ply her with vodka and threaten her with violence unless she succumbed to horrific abuse. 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. Ringleader Shabir Ahmed was originally handed a 19 year sentence which was upped to 22 years for repeatedly raping a girl. Brand new in box. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. A ringleader of a grooming gang has avoided being deported so it would therefore be wrong to deport two other gang members, a tribunal has heard. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. I think it was because they were afraid of being called racist. 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. [47] However this report was "fiercely" criticised for its unscientific nature and poor methodology by child sexual exploitation experts Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, in their paper "Failing Victims, Fuelling Hate: Challenging the Harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' Narrative" which was published in January 2020. [32], In 2011, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre launched a five-month long investigation into whether there was a link between racial profile and the crime of underage grooming. Handout pictures released by Greater Manchester police in 2012 show eight of nine men convicted in connection with the child sexual exploitation ring. [2] One gang member convicted of sex trafficking was a religious studies teacher at a mosque and a married father of five. The Sun Online looks at the scandal The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. Find a Job There were therefore many still walking free that had evaded detection. 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. 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. As a result of police failures to respond to evidence, the men who had groomed the three children were able to continue . The women, who were abused as children, brought a legal claim against the police force, The men plied their victims with drink and drugs and "passed them around" for sex. It was like a casual, Oh, bring your friends. She was a vulnerable child, being sexually abused, controlled and in fear. This resulted in Greater Manchester Police launching Operation Doublet to investigate further claims of abuse with . Not one charged never, why? The ID parades were particularly gruelling for Amber, who did 12 in one day alone, correctly identifying 10 of her abusers. "[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. Some of the men involved were arrested, tried and found guilty. 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Victor Farrant 73. 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.. 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. . One woman said she welcomed "some accountability" but did not believe GMP had "really changed their ways". [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. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Mohammed Amin received a five-year sentence for sexual assault and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. An External Reference Group, consisting of independent experts on child sexual exploitation . May stated the revocations were "conducive to the public good". [I] cant remember exactly what they said, but it was something along the lines of being a madam, she recalled. But when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reviewed the case in summer 2009, it was decided that the girl "would not be viewed as a credible witness" - a decision not appealed against by GMP - and no prosecution was brought. "[3], Sayeeda Warsi, co-chairperson of the Conservative Party, in an interview with the Evening Standard, said "You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first," and added, "This small minority who see women as second class citizens, and white women probably as third class citizens, are to be spoken out against." Without Ambers initial evidence there might never have been a trial at all. They talk about the choices they've made, their relationships, families, frustrations and hopes. It took police 11 months to compile a file of evidence for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after interviewing the young victim from the takeaway on four separate occasions. The picture which emerged was one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, who were being targeted for sexual abuse and written off by authorities who believed the girls were making their own choices. 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. Although police interviewed a total of 56 men on suspicion of abuse, only a handful were tried. They ripped away all my dignity". The second woman was 14 when the abuse began. In 2012 nine men were sentenced for the abuse and exploitation of young, mostly white girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. [1] Forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation during the police investigation. THE widespread sexual assault and grooming of girls in the town of Rochdale was a case which shocked the country and prompted major criticism of the authorities. It was then she told police for the first time what was going on. They contend that clouding the issue by calling them "Asians" is unfair towards other groups and detrimental to a frank discussion. "I felt let down," she said. Vile groupwho ran a child sex abuse ring were jailed for a string of offences in 2012. 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. 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. Those failings allowed seven youngsters, and potentially dozens more later identified by police, to be exposed to a catalogue of horrific sex abuse at the hands of manipulative predators. An independent report commissioned by Rochdale council said three employees had spoken of victims making life choices rather than being rape victims. Behind the scenes, however, there was consternation. [24], The case raised a serious debate about whether the crimes were racially motivated. The BBC drama Three Girls was based on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal. It meant she was regarded by the prosecution as a member of the grooming gang whose members would go in the dock, even though she was not charged and would not stand beside them in court. A tribunal heard Aziz, known as "the Master", has been told he will not be deported by the Home Office. 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. Something went wrong, please try again later. The abuse took place in Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, in the early 2000s. 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. Running though them is repeated mentions of the fact that many in authority believed that the girls had brought the abuse on themselves. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. In June 2017 it was revealed that the members of the Rochdale gang facing deportation will receive legal aid to fight attempts to send them back to Pakistan, prompting widespread public anger. 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. But once the CPS advised the GMP that she was no longer seen as a suspect, she was persuaded by Oliver to begin a series of video interviews and ID parades. The vile group exploited girls as young as 13 and were. Id been used. After the trials conclusion, there were public apologies from the police, the council and prosecutors for failing the victims. Read about our approach to external linking. In Rochdale, which is home to approximately 20,000 people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, far-right activists spied an opportunity. Nine men were convicted, of whom eight were of British Pakistani origin and one was an Afghan asylum-seeker. Her evidence helped put abusers behind bars, yet Amber was vilified by the authorities and says her torment will never end. [citation needed], Twelve men were initially charged with sex trafficking and other offences including: rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Convicted rapist who murdered one woman and attempted to murder another. Rochdale grooming scandal Nine men who abused girls as young as 13 were convicted over a child sex grooming ring, guilty of 21 counts of sexual abuse over a two-year period. [17], Victims were physically assaulted and raped by as many as five men at a time,[1] or obliged to have sex with "several men in a day, several times a week". 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. Girls aged between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gang. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Amber was understandably reluctant to trust the police. I gave hours of interviews, reliving all the abuse. In other words, victims of horrific abuse had been ignored until one of them - the girl who smashed up the takeaway - finally made her story heard. [7] A former Detective Constable who was investigating the grooming gangs, Margaret Oliver, resigned in 2012 in disgust of the handling of the cases by the police force and spoke out as a whistleblower to inform the public. [13], As a result of the CPS dropping the case, the police halted their investigation, which was resumed when a second girl made complaints of a similar nature in December 2009. "[54], One of the seven officers retired without any sanctions being taken, even though his misconduct was found to have warranted disciplinary action. 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'. BBC Ones new drama Three Girls launched on Tuesday to five million viewers. However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending. He was a married father-of-five and religious studies teacher at a local mosque. [31], In late 2011, the Office of the Children's Commissioner began a two-year long inquiry into child sexual exploitation by street gangs. The alleged offences that took place in Rochdale between 2005 and 2013 included rape, conspiracy to rape, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual activity with a child, and sexual assault. [2] One 13-year-old victim had an abortion after becoming pregnant. Wide elastic waistband with black edging. [19] Adil Khan (left) and Qari Rauf (right) were jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of serious child sex offences. He shouted in court, "Where are the white people? The case is another example of the worrying number of girls who . History was repeating itself, said Maggie. It was in nearby Oldham, in 2001, that tensions between white and Asian locals, exacerbated by neo-Nazi provocateurs, had boiled over into a riot. Fits all sizes comfortably. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. She was being raped. "I know they believed me, they said to me at the end that something should have been done.". As a responsible publication the M.E.Ns editors respected this request from senior detectives at GMP and eventually our story was published a few months later. I trusted police that I would be helped this time.