An independent report into historic child sexual exploitation in Rochdale says children were left at the "mercy" of grooming gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses. The 173-page report found that between 2004 and 2013 there were probably at least 74 children being sexually exploited and that in 48 of those cases there were serious failures to protect the child. It also identified 96 men in Rochdale who are still deemed a potential risk to children. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 laid bare in 173 damning pages. An independent report into historic child
00:07 sexual exploitation in Rochdale which says children were left at the mercy of
00:12 grooming gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses.
00:17 We have found compelling evidence that there was widespread
00:20 organised sexual exploitation of children within Rochdale from at least
00:26 2004 onwards. GMP and Rochdale council were made aware of significant networks
00:33 of men engaged in the widespread exploitation of children but failed to
00:40 prioritise their protection. In May 2012 nine men from Rochdale and Oldham were
00:46 found guilty of exploiting girls aged between 12 and 15 for sex. The girls were
00:52 given drugs and alcohol and then raped in rooms above takeaway shops. Today's
00:58 report says that between 2004 and 2013 there were probably at least 74 children
01:05 being sexually exploited and that in 48 of those cases there were serious
01:10 failures to protect the child. Child sexual exploitation was a low priority
01:15 and under-resourced by Greater Manchester Police and it identifies 96
01:20 men in Rochdale who are still deemed a potential risk to children. There was a
01:25 tiny number of the abusers ever held to account in relation to years of abuse.
01:32 They are still walking the streets of Rochdale. The report highlighted the
01:37 indifference of the local authority to the plight of youngsters, mainly white
01:42 girls from poor backgrounds, all of them potential victims of abuse by Asian men.
01:47 There is just no getting away from the fact that this was a huge failure. Things
01:55 that should have been prevented because of what had been learnt in Manchester in
02:00 2005, action should have been taken to prevent a repeat of these failures but
02:06 also to protect the children who were at risk in Rochdale during that time and
02:11 you know that was a very significant failing by the Greater Manchester system
02:16 that it didn't prevent a repeat. The report says the failure to prioritise,
02:20 detect, disrupt or prosecute should firmly be laid at the door of the senior
02:26 officers in the force throughout the period of 2004 to 2013. Greater
02:31 Manchester Police's chief constable between 2008 and 2015 was in fact knighted
02:37 in 2012 for services to policing. Today the current chief constable offered this
02:43 apology. Where you see what these children went through, their childhoods
02:48 were utterly destroyed with such profound consequences for the rest of
02:54 their life. It is a source of profound regret that that ever happened to them
02:58 and insofar as GMP's failures to protect those people I am very sorry. Of the 74
03:06 children believed to have been exploited, successful convictions were only made for
03:10 13 of those cases. For many of the Rochdale survivors this report is too
03:15 little too late.
03:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]