A VULNERABLE young child from a broken family, Steph hoped for a better life when she was placed in a children’s home in Manchester as a young teenager.
But her nightmare was just beginning – as she became easy pickings for a sick grooming gang who preyed on kids in care.
SuppliedPolice whistleblower Maggie Oliver tracked down Steph’s abuser[/caption]
GettySteph remains anonymous to protect her identity[/caption]
Amy Brammal / Channel 4Chantelle has bravely spoken out about her abuse[/caption]
“I had a lot of foster placements before being moved to the home where I started going out with some of the girls who introduced me to these men,” she says.
“One day someone picked me up from the home and took me to this flat. I remember looking at how shiny his shoes were and I asked him what was his job, because there was another man there, dressed identical. They said that they were security guards.
“They kept me at the flat for two days. The big one took me into the bedroom, telling me to relax, and then the next one would come in and they just took turns.
“I remember speaking to one of the women who worked in the children’s home and I told her and that’s when she reported it.”
But it was not until years later that she found out the shocking truth about her rapists – at least one of them was a serving police officer at Greater Manchester Police.
Steph – not her real name – was one of the abused children who came to the attention of a police and social services investigation into child sexual exploitation rings in South Manchester, called Operation Augusta.
“I was asked to join the team and it was my first introduction to what has been now recognised as grooming gangs,” says former Detective Constable, Maggie Oliver.
“Within the space of a few weeks, we had identified dozens of men, virtually all Pakistani, who were often sending younger boys to pick up children from children’s homes where they were in care from the age of 11 to 16. And they were just like cannon fodder.”
Because Steph had turned 18, she was the only victim Maggie had been given permission to talk to and she drove her around the area so she could point out the places where her abusers had taken her.
“She showed me a couple of takeaway places where, in the rooms above, they would rape and abuse children. Then, as we were driving past a park, out of nowhere Steph said, ‘Oh, my God!’”
Says Steph: “I remember seeing the car I had been picked up in and I said to Maggie, ‘That’s the car that picked us up a few times from the children’s home.’
“I was in no doubt. A little while later, the man who drives that car came out and I said to Maggie, ‘That’s him’.”
Back at the police station Maggie did a search for the car registration to find out who it belonged to.
“I got a call from the internal investigations department and they asked me why I had used the Police National Computer to search the vehicle and I explained that it had been pointed out as belonging to a child rapist.
They kept me at the flat for two days. The big one took me into the bedroom, telling me to relax, and then the next one would come in and they just took turns
Steph
“I was then told that our team mustn’t do anything else in relation to that vehicle or that man because he was a serving police officer and he was already under investigation for other offences.”
Soon after this incident, Maggie took compassionate leave because her husband was ill.
“I came back to work expecting to go back onto Operation Augusta but the whole job had been buried, as though it had never been in existence. Everything had gone.”
PA:Press AssociationShabir Ahmed (top left), Adil Khan (top right), Abdul Aziz (bottom left) and Qari Abdul Rauf were jailed in 2012 for a string of grooming offences in Rochdale[/caption]
candourAnna Hall spoke to five women for the documentary[/caption]
Raped at 11
Operation Augusta was shut down by senior officers in Greater Manchester in the summer of 2005. The reason given was lack of resources.
Fifty seven known victims were left to be exploited and 97 perpetrators were left on the streets of Manchester to continue to abuse children.
Steph is one of five women abused by sex grooming rings, predominantly in Manchester and Yorkshire, who bravely speak to filmmaker Anna Hall in the powerful Channel 4 documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, which airs this Wednesday.
Another is Chantelle, now in her 30s.
“When we were growing up my mum was in and out of prison a lot so social services got involved because my dad was unable look after all of us on his own,” she says.
Chantelle and her four brothers and sisters were placed in care.
“I actually preferred being in care,” she says. “I was going to school, being fed, having a bath and making friends. It was quite nice at first. I was eight years old.”
When she was 11 she was moved to accommodation at a children’s home in Manchester.
Amy Brammal / Channel 4Chantelle was forced to perform sex acts on several men at just 11[/caption]
“A bunch of men used to sit on the wall outside the home and I ended up getting into what I thought was a relationship with one of them.
“There was no sexual intercourse or anything at first. It was all food, beer, cigarettes and then he introduced me to cannabis.
“He would put pills into my drink and try and give me cocaine and stuff like that.
“It progressed quite quickly to a sexual relationship. It was only with the one guy for about a week or two and then a car used to come and there would be a driver and two men in the back – one of them was the man in his 20s that I genuinely thought was my boyfriend at first.
“He used to bring his friends in the car and I would have to do oral sex on them – I was still just 11.
“The men just kept coming to the home for me. I think I was going missing every day from that children’s home. Once I was high on drugs they had given me and they put me in a car and I was taken to a hotel in town where I was held for four days and men were just coming and going.
“In the end they showed me a load of money, took me to the Arndale Centre and bought me a gold ring and a mobile phone and then dropped me back at the children’s home.
One day there were about 11 men that all did something to me. And they wouldn’t let me go. I told the police on numerous occasions and there were never any follow-ups
Chantelle
“There was another incident where I was anally raped by these men and passed about. One day there were about 11 men that all did something to me. And they wouldn’t let me go. I told the police on numerous occasions and there were never any follow-ups.
“I remember telling my social worker that I wanted to move and that I didn’t want them to come to the home anymore. And nothing got done about it. I remained there.
“I’ve never fully understood why the police or social services never did anything. Is it because they don’t want to be classed as racists or is that we just have no one who cares?”
AlamyMaggie Oliver blew the whistle on the grooming gangs[/caption]
Jade, another victim of the grooming gangs, also appears in the showRob Parfitt / Channel 4
Anna has been following the story for decades
In 2012, Maggie Oliver left the police in protest at the handling of the Rochdale grooming trial.
She became an outspoken critic of the authorities and insisted they had covered up the full extent of grooming and abuse and failed to protect children.
Around the same time, youth worker Jayne Senior exposed a similar child sexual abuse scandal in Rotherham.
She had helped set up a project there called Risky Business to support young people involved in child exploitation.
But after yet another of their reports about sexual perpetrators was dismissed by council leaders, Jane had devastating news. A senior manager in Rotherham Borough Council told her Risky Business was being closed down.
Contacted by a reporter from The Times in 2012 she exposed what had happened and, following a series of articles, it became a national scandal and an increasing amount of sexual abusers were being brought to court.
“The scandal in Rotherham promoted police forces around the country to re-examine historic cases,” says Anna Hall.
“It looked promising but it took another five years for Greater Manchester Police to re-open their old files on Operation Augusta.”
No action
Steph was contacted by the police.
“I was quite shocked when they knocked on the door,” she recalls. “I asked if the man who raped me worked for GMP.
“They both looked at each other and said, ‘Yeah. But he no longer does.’ I then asked, ‘But if I had picked him out, why has he never been investigated?’”
Steph has not heard from Greater Manchester Police since 2021.
“I don’t expect to hear from them. I’ve given up hope,” she says. “I’ve been willing to give a statement and to put these men in jail where they belong and to help other people but they have chosen not to listen to me because it was one of their own.
“I do genuinely believe that is one of the reasons why they didn’t bring him in.”
Chantelle was also approached by GMP in 2019.
“They said that they wanted to make things right,” she says. “I felt really happy, like I was finally going to get justice.
“I picked two men out on an ID parade. One of them was the main abuser.
“As soon as I saw him, I knew and I remember my whole body just sank. I felt sick but I knew it was what I had to do to get justice.
“However, nothing has been done. What’s taken so long to charge them? I feel like I’ve put myself through the trauma of the ID parade and talking to the police for nothing. I don’t feel like anything has changed.
“For many years I had this big dark hole and I felt ashamed but I’m not any more.
“I think that all that I have been through has made me tougher. I’m a really good parent to my children. I am proud of who I am after what I’ve been through.”
‘Voices have never been heard’
Greater Manchester Police told the programme that they met Steph in 2019 to apologise and discuss the review of Operation Augusta. They say she decided not to proceed with the investigation a year later.
They say that they have fully accepted and apologised for past failings and that a complex criminal investigation is continuing into the abuse that Chantelle suffered.
Manchester City Council told the programme that it felt deeply sorry Chantelle went through this ordeal and that not enough was done to protect her and others in the early 2000s.
It said that safeguarding practice is now much stronger and that it works closely with the police and other agencies to protect young people at risk of exploitation and pursue perpetrators.
Anna says: “I’m angry that of the five women in our film estimate that they have been collectively abused by hundreds and hundreds of men.
“And that out of all of them only one, Erin, has had justice against just seven men.
“Our five women represent thousands and thousands of other women across the country whose voices have never been heard.”
Groomed: A National Scandal airs Wednesday on Channel 4.
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
