Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has welcomed GMP's apology to three victims of grooming gangs in Rochdale.
GMP Chief Constable Stephen Watson met the women on Tuesday afternoon (April 12) and apologised for police failings in their cases. The three victims also received 'substantial' payouts from the force. In a statement Mr Burnham said the move 'marks a clear break with the past behaviour of GMP'.
He said: "Within days of being elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester I commissioned an independent assurance review into historic child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester, prompted by The Betrayed Girls documentary and the serious issues raised by (GMP whistleblower) Maggie Oliver. The first phase of the review reported in January 2020 and, whilst the review into other areas, including Rochdale, is on-going it is right that action is taken when possible.
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"There is no doubt that GMP did fail victims and survivors. I am therefore pleased that today the new Chief Constable has met with some of the victims of child sexual exploitation from Rochdale and with Maggie Oliver and has delivered an in-person and written apology. This marks a clear break with the past behaviour of GMP and I hope it will provide reassurance that, under the new leadership of our Chief Constable, an entirely different approach is being taken to victims and facing up to past mistakes."
Mr Watson also apologised for his predecessors' errors in not investigating the abusers, a culture which happened under the previous Chief constables, including Sir Peter Fahy.
He told the women: "It is a matter of profound personal regret that your childhood was so cruelly impacted by the dreadful experiences which you endured. GMP could and should have done much more to protect you and we let you down."
The apology comes a decade after nine members of the Rochdale grooming gangs were convicted following an investigation known as Operation Span. The trial heard the 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.
One of the three women was depicted as the character Ruby in the award-winning BBC dramatisation of the Rochdale grooming scandal - Three Girls. In legal documents, Ruby, who is identified as BXW, states the abuse began aged 12 and continued for four years where she was passed 'like a ball' between 'thousands' of men for rape and sexual abuse.
She was impregnated by one man, Adil Khan, when she was aged 13 and had an abortion. Police seized the foetus as evidence, but she was not notified – and nor was her mother or any responsible adult. The second woman, Amber, also depicted in the BBC drama in 2017, was aged 14 when the abuse began, according to her legal claim. She was first raped while intoxicated and thereafter raped and sexually assaulted by numerous men on numerous occasions, giving police the names or nicknames of 45 males who abused her or other children.
Another woman, Daisy, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was only 12 when the abuse began. She said: "I don’t know if I believe that Greater Manchester Police have really changed their ways as they say they have, but I’m happy that they’ve taken into account their failings and there’s finally been some accountability."
Kate Ellis, a solicitor at the CWJ who acted for the three claimants, said: "We hope that today’s outcome will serve as a reminder to Greater Manchester Police, and other police forces, that they will be held to account if they fail to protect vulnerable children from exploitation and abuse."
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