Campaigners for survivors say low prosecution rates means 'sexual offences have virtually become decriminalised'
Police officers and social workers raised fears that more than 500 children from Oldham were being sexually abused last year - the highest in nearly a decade - a Manchester Evening News and Local Democracy Reporting Service investigation has found.
Whistleblowing former GMP detective Maggie Oliver, who now heads a charity supporting survivors of sexual abuse, said their workload increases daily as more victims whose cases have not been properly investigated seek support and justice. Concerns raised over 522 children being sexually abused The M.E.N/LDRS asked Oldham council how many referrals specifically raising concerns of sexual abuse against children in the borough have been recorded by social services, and flagged to social workers by the police, in the last 20 years.
Just 21 concerns were officially recorded by the force in 2014. Seven years later they rose to 164 and further increased to 189 last year. "But what we do see is there are dangerous individuals and there are risks that apply to young people. Not only in Oldham, because a lot of our young people are travelling into [other Greater Manchester boroughs].
During the pandemic Mr Jones said they saw the extent of online exploitation surge as children were confined to their homes during lockdowns and spent much more time on social media and the internet. The MASH is also able to link up with the police when a child is believed to be associating with a known offender, or other young people who are being subject to exploitation.
"One of the issues for us is to explain why, what seems obvious now, wasn’t obvious then – it’s because we didn’t see things with that level of sophistication that we now do. Among its findings were that children were exploited and let down by services which tried and failed to protect them, and girls who were being drugged and violently raped were said by social workers to be ‘putting themselves at risk’.
During his trial Chowdhury, of Attock Close in Chadderton, named two other men involved in the rapes as part of his mitigation, but these were not followed up by GMP at the time, the report stated, which was branded as ‘another serious failure’.Sam said she is worried that despite promises by both organisations that the response has improved, the figures show young people are still not being protected.
"Grooming needs to be taught about from such a young age, from four, five years old. How they speak to you, how they try and persuade you, buy you stuff," Sam added. "There is much greater awareness and awareness provides protection. I do think that is important. We’re much more sensitive to identifying the early signs of exploitation and stepping in early to address and resolve those issues.
"It’s really difficult to prove why there is an increase," Ms Oliver said of the Oldham figures. "All I know is that at the foundation we are seeing so many cases of survivors who have reported and their cases aren’t being thoroughly investigated. Across the region the force has invested more than £2.3m into its new CSE unit, which is made up of 106 officers investigating historic or ‘non-recent’ crimes.
'Sexual offences have virtually become decriminalised' Raising awareness of the early warning signs of grooming and inappropriate relationships, as well as on how to educate people against perpetrating abuse themselves is only one part of the battle of tackling child sexual abuse. It its annual report for 2022/23, the Crown Prosecution Service said that improving the handling of rape and serious sexual offences cases was a ‘fundamental priority’.
Former GMP detective Ms Oliver said that in her experience, cases being investigated properly in a way that could be successfully prosecuted were a rarity. A spokesperson for GMP said: "We continue to work closely with Saint Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre and Survivors Manchester, who have helped GMP on Operation Soteria and welcome any developments to improve the support we offer for victims of rape and sexual assault."
The Home Office says that Operation Soteria is one of many pieces of work underway which supports its ambition to more than double the number of cases reaching court. "It would be wrong for us to completely rely on a criminal outcome to help protect children and we do what we need to do and work with families and with our community to achieve that. We don’t just rely on that as a sole outcome.
"Awareness is much greater now and we’re much clearer around the risks and how that impacts on young people’s behaviour. We’re much more sensitive to identifying the early signs of exploitation and stepping in early to address and resolve those issues.
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