The Northern Agenda: Burnham booed amid Oldham grooming fury
28.06.2022 - 14:53
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Social media posts alleging a political cover-up of child grooming have cast a long shadow over Oldham in recent years, enabling the rise of a new independent political group and contributing to the dethroning of two council leaders in successive years.
And a week after the release of a damning report into child sexual exploitation in the Greater Manchester borough, local anger is showing no sign of abating. Protesters heckled and booed Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham at a fiery public meeting last night and Amanda Chadderton, who recently took over as leader, was met with furious calls to resign.
During the meeting council and police speakers were shouted down and booed by the public gallery as around 100 people were allowed into the main chamber at the Civic Centre, with many holding up paper signs reading 'Cover Up' and some turning their backs on proceedings.
The meeting was held to give the public and councillors the chance to quiz officials about the findings of the report, which found vulnerable children had been failed. Local Democracy Reporter Charlotte Green captures the hostile atmosphere in her live blog here .
A specific case dating back to 2005 involving ‘Sophie’, a 12-year-old girl who was repeatedly raped, is singled out for intense criticism for the way authorities dealt with the investigation into her assaults by strangers, and for not taking action when she was being groomed online.
In Sophie’s case both Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Oldham council were said to be more concerned with their reputations and ‘covering up their failures’ than acknowledging the harm done to the young girl. However, when assessing the claims about a widespread cover up of abuse in the borough, the review
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