Police chief vows ‘relentless' pursuit of grooming gangs
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson also said those who failed victims in the past 'should face justice like anyone else'.
Mr Watson was speaking after a press conference in response to a report by police watchdogs which was largely positive about GMP's turnaround in tackling the gangs.
The report also said the force is now investigating more than 1,000 grooming gang suspects.
Mr Watson said: 'To those who are responsible for these repugnant crimes – as is now very apparent – we will pursue you relentlessly.'
The chief constable also said the role ethnicity plays in grooming gang offending is a 'legitimate question' and may be explored in a future national inquiry.
Asked if prosecutions should follow if the inquiry shows officials failed to act, Mr Watson said: 'It is my hope that where people do bear an accountability, that they should legitimately answer for their decisions and if the determination is that they are somehow culpable then of course they should face justice like anyone else.'
GMP has made 'significant improvements' in how it investigates group-based sexual exploitation of children, or grooming gangs, and other types of child sexual abuse offences, according to the report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
The 76-page report looks at the current and ongoing way grooming gangs and other child sex offences are handled by the police, health bodies and the 10 councils in Greater Manchester.
It said police have live investigations into 'multi-victim, multi-offender' child sexual exploitation inquiries, involving 714 victims and survivors, and 1,099 suspects.
Michelle Skeer, His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, said: 'We found that since 2019, when Greater Manchester Police started to review its non-recent child sexual exploitation investigations, the force has improved its understanding and approach to investigating allegations of child criminal and sexual exploitation.
'It is clear that the force has, for many years, been trying to provide a better service to those who have or may have experienced sexual exploitation.
'But for some, trust and confidence in the police had been lost, and the force would not be able to rectify their experiences.
'It is vital that improvements are led by victims' experiences, and if they do come forward, they are supported, protected and taken seriously.'
The report from inspectors found Sir Stephen and other senior officers make sure all ranks understand child protection is a priority, it said, with he or deputy chief constables having personally spoken to every supervisor in the force about it.
The report states: 'Officers told us that, due to a cultural shift in Greater Manchester Police, investigating child sexual exploitation is now considered 'everyone's business'.'
Grooming gangs also 'feature heavily' in chief officer meetings, with performance monitored closely, the report said.
GMP is the only force in the country to set up a dedicated team to investigate grooming gangs, which it did in 2021, now called the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team (CSE MIT), with around 100 staff and a ring-fenced budget.
The force also approaches child sexual exploitation as it does serious and organised crime gangs, using specialist tactics.
In October 2024, the force told inspectors there were 59 live multi-victim, multi-offender child sexual exploitation investigations, of which 13 were being managed by the CSE MIT.
In these active investigations, there were 714 victims and survivors, and 1,099 suspects.
The force has also recorded demographic data, such as the age, sex and ethnicity of potential victims and suspects, and uses 'intelligence products' to produce 'problem profiles' to detail emerging threats and risks.
A recent report by Baroness Casey found a significant over-representation of Asian men who are suspects in grooming gangs in Greater Manchester, adding though authorities are in 'denial' more needs to be done to understand why this is the case.
Inspectors also said the force is aware of 'training gaps' in some investigation teams and that some victims had been let down in the way their case was handled.
The report also pointed to issues with data sharing, with local councils sometimes not willing to provide detectives with information, leading to 'significant delays in investigations' into grooming gangs.
It cites problems with intelligence provided by Manchester City Council, which took months to arrive and 'was so heavily redacted that some pages contained only a few words', the report said.
Nevertheless, so far the CSE MIT and the earlier grooming gang investigations have resulted in 42 convictions and more than 430 years' imprisonment for offenders.
Investigations are ongoing and several more trials are scheduled.
The report adds: 'The force fully accepts that it made mistakes in the past.
'It has taken positive and effective steps to learn from these mistakes and improve how it investigates recent and non-recent child sexual exploitation.'
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: 'I am confident in my view that the Greater Manchester system is in a demonstrably different and far stronger place today than it was when the failings happened.
'The effect of the assurance review I commissioned has been to usher in widespread culture change across all GM bodies. Never again will any child here be labelled or dismissed when they come forward to report concerns.
'Now the national inquiry is being put in place, we must allow victims the space and the right climate to have their voices heard, allow the actual truth to be established and accountability delivered.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
12 minutes ago
- The Independent
Why Man Utd fans cancelled planned protest before Arsenal game
A Manchester United supporters' group, The 1958, has postponed a planned protest against the club's ownership. The demonstration was initially organised for 17 August, ahead of United's opening Premier League match against Arsenal, targeting minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The 1958, known for previous protests against the Glazer family, extended their frustration to Ratcliffe over his operational changes and perceived collaboration with the Glazers. The group stated that Ratcliffe, who acquired a 28.94 per cent stake and took operational control in February 2024, was "no saviour" and "helping keep them in charge." The postponement followed a survey revealing a split in fan opinion, with the group deciding it was irresponsible to risk internal conflict among supporters. Manchester United fan group postpones protest against Sir Jim Ratcliffe
The Sun
12 minutes ago
- The Sun
Police worker stalked & blackmailed teen boy for seven years after meeting him through online game
A POLICE worker stalked and blackmailed a teenage boy for seven years after meeting him through an online game. Ryann Moroney, 28, convinced the lad when he was 15 that he was being blackmailed by several Snapchat accounts. Moroney, who worked on the London Met's cyber crime unit, asked the boy to send naked selfies to appease his fictitious blackmailers. He was arrested when his victim went to the police, who found 83 indecent images of him on Moroney's phone. Moroney admitted stalking and making indecent images of the most serious kind at Inner London crown court. Judge Nathaniel Rudolf KC told him he had taken 'complete and utter advantage' of his victim in a 'sophisticated campaign designed to maximise his fear'. He jailed Moroney for four years, four months. 1
Daily Mail
42 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN DAISLEY SKETCH: Imagine Frost/Nixon with all the depth of an Instagram post
With a book to peddle, Nicola Sturgeon is popping up all over, including on ITV last night, where she sat down with Julie Etchingham. Ah, the tough interview. Once time was deducted for some introductory ambling along a windswept coast, the proceedings lasted about 25 minutes, and even then it dragged on. Nicola Sturgeon somehow seems incapable of providing any insight into Nicola Sturgeon. What was it like being arrested during the SNP finances investigation? 'Utterly traumatic,' she told Etchingham. Naturally. What was it like seeing her husband arrested and led away? She hadn't seen it happen, and didn't have a clear memory of how she felt about it. OK, then. Once the police had left, she fled to her parents' house and watched the news, where she saw her house 'looking like a murder scene'. Sure, everyone said that at the time. It was the forensic tent and the police tape. That's Netflix serial killer documentary stuff. The only thing missing was the old dear next door saying: 'She didn't seem the type to have 15 bodies buried under the patio.' What could she tell us about the experience? About how it affected her? Very little, in truth. Every attempt to elicit a description of her feelings at the time brought the same staccato, one-word responses: 'Horror', 'upset', 'shame'. The whole point of book interviews is to dole out enough meaty little morsels of information that people will be driven to buy and read. She provided nothing like that in her conversation with Etchingham. If she can't manage 25 minutes of vaguely compelling chat, what must the book be like? Nothing new that she said was interesting, and nothing interesting was new. The SNP hadn't done enough prep work when David Cameron granted the referendum, and the White Paper needed more research. (We noticed.) She used to talk to Alex Salmond inside her head. (Well, he was living there rent-free, after all.) We were treated to a discussion of her new tattoo, a self-designed infinity symbol tipped with an arrow and etched onto her right wrist. 'Midlife crisis alert!' Sturgeon yelped. 'Midlife crisis alert,' Etchingham purred. Imagine Frost/Nixon but with all the depth of an Instagram post. On matters of politics and policy, it was as though she had done no self-reflection since leaving office. Asked why she failed to deliver in government, she cited the pandemic. Nasty old pandemic. Ms Sturgeon revealed a new infinity symbol with an arrow tattoo on her wrist Not only did it confine us all to our homes in 2020 and 2021, it went all the way back to 2014 to stop Scotland's First Minister keeping any of her promises. For the briefest of moments, she seemed to acknowledge her error in refusing to say that Isla Bryson, who was briefly placed in a women's prison, was in fact a man. Rapists, she said, 'forfeit their right' to self-identify their gender, then, under the lightest of pushbacks from Etchingham, she took it back. Under questioning about her sexuality, she remained coy, which was fair enough. Her private life is her own affair. What was infinitely more difficult to watch, and the only section of the programme that actually carried any weight, was her memories of the miscarriage, of the guilt that burdens her still. Nicola Sturgeon was a terrible First Minister, a serial breaker of promises, a spinner without substance, and for all that I'm happy to decry her. But she is also the mother of a little girl who never was – 'she would be 14 now,' she mused – and a lifelong bearer of the ungodly pain that comes with baby loss. She told Etchingham she was 'happy being my own person now'. On that, at least, I'm glad for her.
