The report added that professionals repeatedly said the victims had it 'in their power' to stop the abuse 'suggesting this was something they could choose not to do'. In 2015 three men were sentenced for a string of child sexual offences that took place in Rochdale. Last Tuesday Amber, with two other victims of the Rochdale grooming gang, finally received an apology delivered personally by Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police (GMP). Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her. The BBC reports Kabeer Hassan, then 25, of Oldham, was sentenced to nine years for rape and three years, concurrently, for the conspiracy conviction. My name has been dragged through the mud. 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. In subsequent cases, the racial and religious background of perpetrators have been exploited by some - but there have also been accusations that authorities were slow to act on concerns for fear of being dubbed racist. After a troubled upbringing, Amber had been placed on the child protection register as being at risk of sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. [1][2], The oldest person to be convicted, Shabir Ahmed,[16] was for a while the main trafficker of the victims. 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 battle, immigration judges have ruled. Ive got a box in the back of my head, and I just put it all in there and its locked away.. 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. She was later forced into prostitution and at 13, became pregnant by one of the men, Adil Khan, and had an abortion. 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. [7] Actress Lesley Sharp played the police detective Margaret Oliver in the series. She later went on to positively identify a number of offenders, which enabled charges to be brought against them all. Members of the Conservative Growth Group formed by Liz Truss allies out of the ashes of her departure met Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Downing Street on Tuesday to put forward their requests, Playbook has confirmed. A key member of the team was Detective Constable Maggie Oliver whose task was to convince the victims to speak to the police. Tellingly, he added: I believe that one of the factors that led to that was that they were not of your community or religion. Mohammed Amin, 45, of Falinge, was convicted of sexual assault and received a five-year jail term. On one occasion he ordered a girl aged 15 to have sex with Kabeer Hassan, as a "treat" for his birthday Hassan then raped the girl. [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. rochdale grooming case details. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It was said he came to the UK on a lorry in 2008 and claimed asylum and would be deported to Afghanistan at the end of his sentence. He continued: "GMP could and should have done much more to protect you and we let you down.". In 2012 nine men were jailed for their part in a child sexual exploitation ring in Rochdale. Read about our approach to external linking. Behind the scenes, however, there was consternation. Part of HuffPost News. The women, who have been backed by lawyers from the Centre for Women's Justice charity, had brought a legal claim against the force. Although a court order prevented her being named, everyone in her local community knew who she was. He shouted in court, "Where are the white people? Ringleader Shabir Ahmed was originally handed a 19 year sentence which was upped to 22 years for repeatedly raping a girl. Writing for HuffPost UK, chief executive Javed Khan of childrens charity Barnardos described Three Girls as absolutely vital viewing.. 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. 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. 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. It was reported he would be deported back to Pakistan following the conclusion of his sentence. Abdul Rauf, then 43, of Rochdale, was convicted of trafficking a child within the UK for sexual exploitation and received six years. 2023 BBC. In 2019, Amber, along with two other victims, with the help of the Centre for Womens Justice, issued a civil claim for damages against GMP and the director of public prosecutions (DPP). What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? The victims were coerced and bribed into keeping quiet about the abuse by a combination of alcohol and drugs, food, small sums of money and other gifts. At the time, she was living with an older victim but when she became pregnant by one of the men, she moved back in with her parents. 2023 BBC. Rochdale is also being considered as part of the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining whether authorities across the country took the problem seriously. The harrowing real-life drama followed the stories of three teenaged girls who were abused at the hands of a Rochdale grooming gang It looked into the alleged grooming of children in council. A new investigation, dubbed Operation Span, was launched. The company's owner said that due to requests, clients could choose to have a white driver but this was reversed after 50 Asian drivers protested. A tribunal heard Aziz, known as "the Master", has been told he will not be deported by the Home Office. Shed been the victim of abuse from the age of 14. [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. 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. Her act of pent-up frustration in the takeaway - followed by her bravery in speaking out - was the first step, a key moment that would lead to questions about the part which racial identity played in sexual grooming of children in the town and in other places up and down the country. 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. She gave the police a list, at an early stage of Operation Span, with nicknames, telephone numbers and other details relating to offenders. Who were the men in the Rochdale grooming gang and what happened to them? Critics say the delays meant more girls were left to be abused while the criminal justice system slowly changed its course. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. While GMP has finally settled the claim, which includes the personal apology from the chief constable, the DPP has so far resisted. [18] Among the incidents recorded by the police were a 15-year-old victim too drunk to recall being raped by 20 men, one after the other; and another victim so drunk that she vomited over the side of the bed as she was being raped by two men. Hamid Safi, then 22 and of no fixed address, was convicted of trafficking girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation and sentenced to four years. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Team Management: Establish & manage globally distributed, co-located, virtual, cross-functional, high performing self-organizing teams leveraging onsite-offshore delivery models. "It's not a normal relationship when your boyfriend is getting you to sleep with all his friends for money.". I gave hours of interviews, reliving all the abuse. [2] One 13-year-old victim had an abortion after becoming pregnant. In some cases they were driven round Rochdale and Oldham to be made to have sex with paying customers. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said that about 550 officers were working on Operation Doublet in May 2013. Nine men between 24 and 38 years old were arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child. I didnt know what that meant. She was held in custody for hours before being released on bail. 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." It was absolute disrespect that vulnerable young people did not have a voice. "At first I felt really bad, dirty and ashamed. 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. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. [32] Ella Cockbain and Helen Brayley pointed out, "There is no criminal offence of 'on-street grooming' and as a result it is very difficult to measure the extent of the crime based on court statistics. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Stephen Watson QPM, has met and personally apologised to three victims of grooming gangs in Rochdale for a catalogue of investigative failings that prevented their abusers from being brought to justice. It was outrageous. In 2009, when Amber was 16, uniformed officers arrived at her mothers house, arrested her and took her to the police station. 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. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Case studies 41. Three Girls tells the true, harrowing tale of young girls being groomed in Rochdale BBC The dramatisation tells the story of three children who were victims in the scandal and stars Maxine Peake. This reluctance was because shed been in this position before. The ID parades were particularly gruelling for Amber, who did 12 in one day alone, correctly identifying 10 of her abusers. Taxi driver Abdul Qayyum, 44, of Rochdale, - known by the name "Tiger" - was jailed for five years. 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. Find a Job The men led the girls to believe they were in relationships with some of them, and it was normal to have sex. [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. 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. 08 April 2021 The Rochdale grooming scandal was one of the most horrific cases of child sexual abuse in recent times. The patchy training of frontline staff was to blame for the way childrens social care responded to the victims, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board (RBSCB) said in its review into child sexual exploitation after the trial. Search more than 3,000 jobs in the charity sector. [24], The case raised a serious debate about whether the crimes were racially motivated. 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. "I feel relieved that finally, after an all-consuming 10-year battle, GMP have at last acknowledged their horrific treatment of these three victims was wrong, even inhumane," she said. But the situation changed and she was raped by one of the men. The perpetrators would pass the girls to their friends, often to settle a debt. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Another five-year sentence was given to Abdul Qayyum for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children, while Hamid Safi received four years for trafficking for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children. 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. Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, had fought the deportation on human .
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