Rochdale abuse: police ‘sorry’ as officers face no action

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has admitted failing to properly investigate child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.

But despite the damning findings, the report reveals no officers will be formally disciplined for their part in the failures.

In total, the conduct of 13 officers was examined. One of the seven officers issued with misconduct notices, however, was found to have a case to answer. The detective inspector has since retired from GMP.

The investigation conducted by the force’s professional standards branch, and supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), highlights a number of significant failures. It concludes that the officers placed too much emphasis on the credibility of the victims, and not enough on the crime.

The investigation – titled Operation Span – exposed flaws across all agencies in response to the challenges associated with child sexual exploitation, including a lack of understanding of the complexity of the issue.

An initial report submitted by GMP was deemed insufficient, and the force was asked to produce another.

‘Lessons learned’

Commenting on the report’s findings, Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley acknowledged that mistakes had been made and that victims had been let down.

She continued: “For our part in that we apologise to the victims and we give them our assurance that lessons have been learned, changes have been made and we are determined to use this to continue making improvements.

For our part in that we apologise to the victims. Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley

“All officers have been spoken to, the investigation findings shared with them for their personal development and learning and the misconduct and performance issues have been individually addressed.”

Ms Copley concluded that significant improvements continued to be made, and urged victims to come forward knowing that their allegations would be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.

‘Failure’

IPCC Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said: “There was a failure to recognise the seriousness and scale of what was happening in Rochdale.

“It is appalling that young girls were being exploited and abused and the police did not handle it properly.

The force simply did not recognise how to respond to child sexual exploitation on this scale. IPCC commissioner

“Greater Manchester Police has admitted that the focus in Rochdale was on tackling volume crime such as robbery and burglary. The force simply did not recognise how to respond to child sexual exploitation on this scale.”