Rochdale, a former working-class satellite town of Manchester in the northwest of England, is now infamous because of a “pedophile gang”. In the early 2000s, dozens of mature men, most of them British of Pakistani origin, raped underage girls, most of them white. Coming from very modest backgrounds, these teenage girls were offered food and alcohol, then were threatened and raped by dozens of men.
For years, municipal services and the police turned a blind eye to the ordeal of the young girls before these sordid crimes were finally revealed, in early 2010, by whistleblowers, such as Sara Rowbotham, a former employee of the services of local health, and Maggie Oliver, ex-police inspector.
On January 15, an independent report commissioned by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham (Labour), denounced the extent of the failings of local officials and the Greater Manchester Police, who refused to take into account the testimonies of victims and left them “at the mercy of their attackers” over a period from 2004 to 2013. Of the seventy-four teenage girls from Rochdale reported by municipal services to have very probably been sexually exploited by this network of child criminals, only three of them were “properly taken care of” by social services. Moreover, ” at least “ ninety-six individuals representing “potentially a risk for minors” were not worried or even questioned by the police.
Prejudices regarding the credibility of young girls
While employed at the emergency response branch of the NHS (the public hospital), Sara Rowbotham, a specialist in sexual health, began to warn of probable attacks on young girls in the mid-2000s. Despite several dozen of reports made between 2005 and 2011, his superiors turned a deaf ear. In 2008, one of the victims (the courts forbid them from being named, to protect their anonymity) denounced the facts to the police, who opened an investigation. But this statement remains unanswered, the young girl’s words not being considered as ” reliable ” nor sufficient proof of the abuse suffered.
The investigation was only reopened in 2010 and led, two years later, to the conviction of nine men for rape and sex trafficking. Today, dozens of victims are still waiting for justice. At the time, Greater Manchester Police officials welcomed a “fantastic result” for British justice, but the report of January 15 deplores that numerous testimonies from victims concerning dozens of other possible criminals were ignored by the police.
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