Rochdale child grooming scandal 'one of the greatest failures of our society', says Rushi Sunak
03.04.2023 - 14:21
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
More than a decade on, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the Rochdale child grooming scandal 'remains one of the greatest failures of our society'.
In August 2008, police were called to a report of a teenage girl smashing the windows of a fast-food takeaway. From that lone incident, clearly sparked by a sense of desperation and anger, a chilling picture of child grooming and sexual abuse on a scale never before seen, and uncovered, in Greater Manchester slowly began to unravel in Rochdale.
The girl told police of the abuse she had suffered but, as other victims began to emerge, they faced a battle to be believed and for justice to be served.
READ MORE: 'Why did it take so long to deport Rochdale grooming gang members... as they continued to walk our streets?'
A nine-strong gang of Asian men were convicted of sex offences against girls in 2012. For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis, where cash was paid to abuse them. Police said as many as 47 girls were groomed.
It took the courage of a former health worker, now a councillor, in Rochdale who catalogued the abuse over years and blew the whistle, together with detective turned campaigner Maggie Oliver, who resigned from the force over the issue, for the full picture to emerge.
Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, admitted last year the force had been 'borderline incompetent' in its handling of the Rochdale grooming gang as GMP agreed to pay substantial damages to three victims.
PM Mr Sunak was in Rochdale today to launch a 'grooming gangs taskforce'. He pledged 'political correctness' would not get in the way