Labour has come under fire after refusing to hold a public inquiry into historic sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Oldham.

I've just today watched a video by Emma Kenney, about a young mum who was "raped to death" after a night out.
A freedom of information request into whether the person who did it should even be in this country was denied, as well as the police force who had been informed what was going on and decided not to bother going to investigate being found not to have done anything wrong.

It was all caught on cctv, and her mother sat in court and watched the footage of her daughters last minutes, and her rape(s)

Its about time women were given respect and protection from predatory perverts.

There have been enquiries, Wyllow links to one into the Gtr Manchester force area, which pulls no punches in apportioning criticism to /police, children’s services and other agencies.

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse was set up in 2015 and encompassed 15 separate investigations, heard accounts from 7300 victims and published its final report in October 2022. It was tasked with considering the extent to which state and non state institutions ‘failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation

I’m not clear why Oldham wants a public inquiry. Huge cost and why would its conclusions be different than those of every other inquiry. Rotherham had an extensive inquiry, one of the conclusions was police were reluctant to act because of ‘cultural sensitivities’.

I was first aware of taxi drivers and take away workers sexually exploiting children in my area in 1998. These areas of employment predominantly involved men who had Muslim Pakistani origin. Organised sexual and other exploitation of children involved men working the doors at clubs, they were largely of white British heritage. My experience was of judgemental attitudes to the victims who were predominantly young white girls whose backgrounds left them vulnerable to child sexual exploitation. The assumption was that criminal prosecutions of the men would fail because the victims would be seen as ‘unreliable witnesses’ because they were taking drugs and alcohol (given by their abusers).

. In 2011 Nazir Afzal was chief crown prosecutor for north west England. He over turned a previous CPS decision not to charge suspects. He brought prosecutions against nine men who were convicted and jailed in 2012 for the sexual exploitation of 47 girls. What a hero.

Silverling48

FGT it’s already been asked a few posts up but can you tell me what the conservatives did about this.? They had 14 years. Shouldn’t you be even the teeniest bit critical of them?

I posted the beginning of the report from the Governments website (far too many pages to post and my phone is link averse)

As soon as Rishi Sunak became PM he set up a task force which arrested upwards of 500.

The elephant in the room is men and how many if them are capable of sexually abusing women and children when the opportunity presents itself

I can think of a bigger elephant.

Silverling48

FGT it’s already been asked a few posts up but can you tell me what the conservatives did about this.? They had 14 years. Shouldn’t you be even the teeniest bit critical of them?

I am indeed. I make NO apology for them either. I have no alligence to the Tory party. I believe Theresa May was presented with a file on this. The ninny let it gather dust on the shelf for years. Totally inexcusable.

But as someone pointed out to me recently (correctly) two wrongs don’t make a right.

Now the ball is in Labour’s court.
I hope for better things (with some prodding by Elon Musk at Jess Phillips).

If it takes American influence to shame us into action then so be it.

It is almost as if this hideous scandal is being used to fuel an agenda by Musk and his fans. Surely they would not stoop so low.

White tribal men?

This has been swept under the rug for too long. The former chairman of Labour’s parliamentary party warned that drawing attention to the ethnicity of grooming gangs could harm the party’s electoral chances, the ex-MP for Rochdale has claimed.

Simon Danczuk, who represented the town from 2010 to 2017, said he was “threatened” by Tony Lloyd, who was campaigning to be the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner at the time.

Source today’s Telegraph

More:

“ He detailed his concerns in a 2017 letter to Prof Alexis Jay, the chairman of a previous inquiry into child sexual abuse.

He wrote: “The current MP for Rochdale, Tony Lloyd, who then represented Manchester Central, made attempts within Parliament to disassociate the grooming scandal from the Asian Muslim community – that is a matter of public record. He also said privately to me that the links should not be highlighted.

“When Tony became Greater Manchester police commissioner and I continued to raise the poor performance of the local police (and calling for the resignation of the Chief Constable, in an article for the Mail on Sunday) with regard to grooming and publicly called into question Tony’s performance, he phoned and threatened me.

“He said that if I ever repeated such comments he would ‘bounce me from Rochdale to Westminster’. My wife at the time was present when I took the call.

“I am of the view that Tony did not want the abuse of children linked with the Asian Muslim community because it could have an adverse electoral impact for him in the election for police commissioner, and Labour more generally.”

Mr Lloyd was elected as the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner in 2012 and returned to Parliament as Rochdale MP in 2017. He died in January last year. Mr Dobbin died in 2014.

In his letter, Mr Danczuk also said: “When the grooming scandal hit the town, Jim Dobbin MP also told me not to link the issue to the Asian Muslim community because it would have an adverse electoral impact.

“It is also worth you being aware that when the Rochdale grooming scandal did break I was forthright in stating the link between the Asian Muslim community and in pressing Greater Manchester Police to take more action to secure arrests.”

‘There should be a national inquiry’
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Danczuk echoed Kemi Badenoch’s call for an inquiry into grooming gangs.

He said: “The child abuse inquiry in 2017 had a primary focus on historical and Westminster-related type abuse.

“I do think there should be a national inquiry into the grooming gangs also with the ability to prosecute those who turned a blind eye, or stopped and discouraged investigation. My only fear is that if a Labour government set the remit for any such inquiry, they would construct it in a way which provided few meaningful results.”

Basically, it just stinks doesn’t it?
How DO people sleep at night?

Agreed.
It STINKS!!!

GrannyGravy13

Letter from Jess Phillips, safeguarding minister.

JP was so very vocal against the Conservatives for not doing enough, something I agree with, now she is backtracking.

I’ve read her explanation but I would like more information.
I can only assume she has more information into how Oldham Council will conduct the enquiry.
The only person i have 100% faith in to get to the truth would be Nazir Afzal.

Andrew Norfolk a Times investigative journalist exposed the Rotherham Child Sex Scandal which won the Paul Foot and Orwell Prize for journalism.. That four page splash appeared in 2011 prompted the government Inquiry. He was attacked at the time by both those who felt he was unfairly targeting a minority community and also by the far right who felt he should have written more about anti white racism. The police he believed, while fearful of appearing racist, adopted double standards. I think I read at the time, he was warned off the subject as it was suggested that it was a topic too hot to handle given the cultural aspects. That was apropos of first hearing the allegations in a speech by the then Labour MP, Ann Cryer in which allegations were made by mainly white girls against Pakistani perpetrators - he didn't want to follow it up immediately on the assumption that he "thought it was a dream story for the far right" The Inquiry that followed found that 1,400 children had been abused by these men over a 16 year period.

That was all a while ago, what's depressing is how many subsequent cases around the country have come to court which poses the question, is it still going on?

Maggie Oliver ex police, has worked tirelessly with victims.

Some of the stories of these children are just so horrific and sad.

There is absolutely no denying that the establishment let them down on every level.

Ann Cryer said she was shunned by police, social services and imams when she tried to bring abusers to justice

We let them down outside of these scenarios. The fallout is huge
We should be doing better

Thank God for Maggie Oliver and all those like her!

Anniebach

Ann Cryer said she was shunned by police, social services and imams when she tried to bring abusers to justice

I remember that Anniebach.

⬇️

Did he actually say that? If so, that’s awful

Dumping vulnerable people (especially children) with all sorts of problems in just set areas has caused huge problems too and has led to this also.

Only brave women stand up for people

Yes Nazir Afzal and Maggie Oliver have both been champions for the abused girls.

It's kind of obvious where obfuscation, denial, victim blaming all conspire to play into the far right's hands, there are sometimes uncomfortable truths that surround some ethnic groups, somehow that needs to be recognised without demonising the entire community. Sometimes appalling behaviours have to be faced head on, we've seen how not addressing wrongs, remember the mass assaults against women in Cologne followed by denials, what has gone on behind closed doors within churches, eventually these matters are outed and will blow up in the apologists' faces. Wrong doings should never be swept under the carpet, trivialised, or the abused told to suck it up for the greater good. There's far too much of that it's mealy mouthed at best and plain criminal at worst!

Oreo

rafichagran

Elon Musk should mind his own business, and look to the injustices that happen to the black, poor, and people either learning disabilities, and mental health in the USA. His country is a disgrace at times.

I thought he was a South African citizen? I don’t think he has any right to interfere in any other country’s business including the US.

If you have enough money it is easy enough to buy citizenship of the USA.

Naz Shah MP for Bradford (Labour) said an appalling thing about the girl victims of the grooming gangs which is available online.

Why would Brown have said that when he spoke out about abuse of child migrants