The towns where exploiting children 'is the new normal': New police report reveals scale of sex crimes... but critics condemn study as a whitewash
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2813376/The-towns-exploiting-children-new-normal-New-police-report-reveals-scale-sex-crimes-critics-condemn-study-whitewash.html
- Police-commissioned study finds schoolgirls routinely approached by men
- Girls given alcohol, drugs and gifts and groomed for sex, report states
- 'Almost 650 missing children in Greater Manchester at risk of exploitation'
- Inquiry commissioned following Rochdale grooming scandal in 2012
- Gang of nine Asian men preyed on vulnerable young girls
- But critics claim study 'whitewashes' failings of police to deal with grooming
Child sexual exploitation has become the ‘social norm’ in some towns, a report warns today.
Schoolgirls
are routinely being approached by much older men who ply them with
alcohol, drugs and gifts as a way of grooming them for sex, says the
study commissioned by police.
Figures
in the report suggested almost 650 children reported missing in towns
across Greater Manchester in 2014 were at risk of child sexual
exploitation or serious harm.
Schoolgirls are
routinely being approached by much older men who ply them with alcohol,
drugs and gifts as a way of grooming them for sex, according to a study
commissioned by police (file picture)
But
despite almost 13,000 reports of child sex abuse in the past six years,
only 1,078 people were convicted, figures from Greater Manchester
Police revealed.
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The
report’s author – Labour MP Ann Coffey – insisted police were making
progress on the issue, but this prompted furious claims last night that
the study ‘whitewashed’ the extent of police failings to deal with
on-street grooming.
The
study was also criticised for failing to address the fact that many
street grooming gangs are made up by men of Asian origin.
The inquiry was commissioned following
the 2012 Rochdale grooming scandal when a gang of Asian men, including
the eight pictured, preyed on vulnerable young girls
The
inquiry was commissioned following the Rochdale grooming scandal in
2012 when a gang of nine Asian men preyed on vulnerable young girls.
Today’s
148-page report – Real Voices, Child Sexual Exploitation In Greater
Manchester – was commissioned by the local Police and Crime Commissioner
Tony Lloyd. It said that in some districts young girls are regularly
approached by men at the school gates or urged to get into cars while
walking home from school.
Victims
were sometimes blamed for the abuse, with descriptions of child
prostitutes or ‘slags’ recorded by officers – even about children as
young as 13.
In
one case, officers did not consider a girl of 13 to be a victim as she
was wearing ‘sexualised’ clothes, including a crop top.
The
report’s author - Labour MP Ann Coffey (left) - insisted police were
making progress on tackling grooming, but Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk
(left) said the study 'lacks the independence needed to confront the
deep problems in GMP that have allowed far too many paedophiles to get
away with terrible crimes'
Miss
Coffey, chairman of the Commons’ all-party group for runaway and
missing children and adults, said the child sex abuse cases in Rochdale,
Rotherham, Derby, Oldham, Oxford, Stockport and Peterborough were a
‘deafening wake-up call’. The Stockport MP added: ‘I have been concerned
about the number of people who have told me that in some neighbourhoods
child sexual exploitation had become the new social norm.’
The
former social worker recommends a radical new approach to tackle the
problem to be led by young people, which recognises that the police,
justice system and children’ s services alone cannot succeed in
protecting children, especially at a time of deep spending cuts.
She
called for more thorough child sexual exploitation training of police
officers and for the issue to be declared a public health priority just
like drugs and obesity.
But her report ran into criticism last night.
Simon
Danczuk, Rochdale MP, said: ‘This was a report commissioned by GMP and
it lacks the independence needed to confront the deep problems in GMP
that have allowed far too many paedophiles to get away with terrible
crimes. This is the only report suggesting the police are making
progress and it’s the first report commissioned by GMP.’
Home
Secretary Theresa May (left) said the report showed the way police were
dealing with the problem was 'not good enough' and Sir Peter Fahy, chief
constable of Greater Manchester, said there was always more that can be
done 'to safeguard and support young people'
Samantha
Roberts, who was raped by an Asian gang in Oldham when she was 12,
said: ‘This report makes very depressing reading when I’ve done so much
work campaigning against child sexual exploitation – I hoped we would
have seen some improvements by now, but that just hasn’t been the case.
‘The
report makes a valid point that not all grooming gangs across the
country are Asian but it’s very clear that in Greater Manchester there’s
an issue of girls being targeted by men from Pakistan and Bangladesh in
particular.’
Home Secretary Theresa May said the report showed the way police were dealing with the problem was ‘not good enough.’
As
the report was released, police in Manchester urged parents to be aware
after a girl of 11 was sexually assaulted by an Asian man as she stood
outside a shop on Tuesday at 5.45pm.
Sir
Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, said: ‘There is
always more we can do to safeguard and support young people.’
Troubled girls who were ignored
Here are some of the victims’ harrowing experiences revealed in Ann Coffey’s report into child exploitation in Manchester:
CROP-TOP GIRL
In
a normally confidential file, prosecutors spell out how a young abuse
victim dressing in provocative clothes was enough for them not to take
the case to court.
It
states: ‘The victim is known (as highlighted by social workers) to tend
to wear sexualised clothes when she is out of school, such as cropped
tops.’
‘While
her age at the time and the date of the decision are not given, it
gives two similarly disturbing examples for prosecutors not proceeding
with abuse allegations. One said how a girl’s “unsettled background”
made her “far from an ideal victim”’, while another pointed out, “I note
her father has referred to her to a social worker as being a slag,
saying she is responsible for what has happened”.’
VICTIM TOLD TO MOVE HOUSE
Another
troubled young girl who was groomed by a 44-year-old man said her
family was told by social workers to ‘move house’ when they tried to
report him.
She
told the authors: ‘One social worker was very snobby... One looked down
their nose at me [and] another said: “Why don’t you move?”’
Her abuser eventually pleaded guilty in court, but she was failed again by the authorities as the family were not notified.
GIRL PASSED BETWEEN 12 SOCIAL WORKERS
A girl who was abused by a 19-year-old man when she was just 12 gave a withering assessment of social workers.
‘There were so many services, that nothing was being done,’ the girl – referred to as F – told the report’s authors.
‘They were just sort of bouncing off each other,’ she said.
She saw a total of 12 social workers, but no-one seemed ‘really interested’. ‘They just came for an hour and then went.’
She eventually testified against some of her abusers, but it was like ‘one attack after another,’ she said.
‘One of the barristers was not even asking me questions; he was just shouting at me…’
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