EXCLUSIVE Revealed: How Rochdale social services workers failed two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped by Asian men - as Tories renew call for new grooming gangs inquiry

Daily Mail​

10 hours ago

The horrific scale of abuse carried out by the latest Rochdale grooming gang that exploited two teens as sex slaves has reignited calls for a national inquiry into how a generation of girls was betrayed.
The case, which concluded on Friday with all seven gang members being convicted of rape, has laid bare the shocking failure of police and social workers to protect their vulnerable young victims.
Astonishingly one of the girls - who was living in a children's home at the time - was dismissed by social workers as having been 'prostituting' herself from the age of ten.
And the Conservative Party has once again called for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, with powers to compel witnesses to attend.
It comes after the Labour government refused the need for such a probe - and supported five local inquiries instead.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said following the conviction of the seven men for the five-year-long campaign of abuse: 'It should not have taken 20 years to get these convictions.
'This kind of abuse was actively covered up by the authorities for too long - simply because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani heritage and police and local councils were more concerned about race relations than about protecting young and vulnerable girls.
'Not a single person in authority has ever been held to account for covering up crimes like these, and for ignoring the victims.
'It's time for a national statutory inquiry to get to the truth about the cover ups. I will push this to a vote in Parliament next Wednesday - but so far Labour has refused to have one, which simply continues the cover up.
'If they vote against a proper inquiry next week, it will be a day of shame for Labour.'
The group today are the first Asian paedophile ring to be convicted since the scandal of Britain's 'rape gangs' sparked an extraordinary transatlantic war of words.
Days before the men's trial began in January it emerged that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips had refused a request from the local council in Oldham – which neighbours Rochdale - to launch a Home Office-led public inquiry into child sex exploitation.
It provoked a bombshell response from Tesla founder and X owner Elon Musk who used his platform to brand her a 'rape genocide apologist' who 'deserves to be in prison'.
Mr Musk also pointed the finger at Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of leaving 'rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice' when he was Director of Public Prosecutions in 2008-2013.
The Prime Minister then sparked further outrage by accusing those calling for a new public inquiry of 'jumping on a far-Right bandwagon'.
The trial heard that the latest gang preyed on the vulnerabilities of the victims to groom them from the age of 13 between 2001 and 2006.
Both girls had 'deeply troubled home lives' and were given drugs, alcohol, cigarette, places to stay and people to be with, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
They were expected to have sex 'whenever and wherever' the defendants and other men wanted in filthy flats, on rancid mattresses, in cars, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses.
Three of the abusers, Mohammed Zahid, 64, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, - all born in Pakistan - were stallholders on Rochdale's indoor market.
The gang's depraved ringleader Zahid was even known as 'Knickerman' because of his underwear stall at the centuries-old trading hub.
The pot-bellied, wispy-haired father-of-three exploited his products' appeal to young girls to lure in vulnerable youngsters who were then subjected to 'years of misery'.
Following the latest set of convictions – the eighth in Rochdale alone – the town's former Labour MP said those demands were now irresistible.
'This horrendous case just underlines the need for a national inquiry,' Simon Danczuk told MailOnline.
'For social workers to refer to a ten-year-old girl as a prostitute is quite simply beyond belief.
'She was being raped, that's the blunt reality, and whoever wrote that report should be held accountable.'
Mr Danczuk has spoken of how after becoming the town's MP in 2010, council chiefs and fellow Labour politicians were resistant or even hostile to the grooming scandal being exposed.
'Police officers, social workers and elected officials all covered up the grooming of young girls for sex in Rochdale, and it emboldened the abusers to keep preying on them,' he said today.
'It's right that those who committed these offences have been prosecuted.
'But the British public won't rest until there's a proper inquiry into who let them get away with it.
'Keir Starmer doesn't want one to happen because he knows Labour activists at every level have covered up Asian grooming gangs because they were afraid of upsetting the Muslim vote.
'That's totally unacceptable.'
Sharon Hubber, director of children's services at Rochdale Borough Council, told MailOnline: 'We know that these convictions are unlikely to erase the memories of the abuse these women were subjected to as children, but we hope they do bring some form of closure.
'We know that more could and should have been done by the people who were working here at the time and for that we are truly sorry.'
Previous trials have heard how a network of depraved taxi drivers and takeaway staff - mainly from Rochdale's Pakistani community - passed around vulnerable girls and sexually abused them.
But this one revealed another location tainted by grooming gangs – the town's markets.
Dating back to the award of a charter in 1251, Rochdale's market has been a source of prosperity and pride for centuries.
But its popularity with young girls in particularly would be exploited by Mohammed Zahid, who was dubbed 'Knickerman' for the underwear stall which he ran.
The ringleader of the latest grooming gang to face justice, the unassuming father-of-three preferred to be known as 'Bossman'.
Since the gang was operating in the early 2000s, Rochdale's markets have regularly been threatened with closure, with stall numbers dwindling.
Traders who still recall Zahid branded him a 'pest' and a 'creep' – but said they had no idea he was using his stall to groom girls.
'He had a real reputation for chasing women,' said one.
'He was always offering them free stuff, especially young girls.
'I know there was a lot of women who bought lingerie off him but would never go back because of the way he made them feel.
'It was well-known that he was a pervert but what he has done is still shocking.'
Maria Fashions – the shop beneath which the victims were ordered to strip before being raped on a 'rancid' mattress - is now under new ownership.
The current owners are angry their shop has been dragged into the grooming scandal.
An employee said: 'People think 'Oh they are all the same', but that couldn't be further from the truth.
'What they were up to is horrific.'
She added: 'The police came round here and told us what had been going on and it made us feel sick
'We never went down to the basement. It is dark and horrible down there.
'There is not even a carpet. It is just awful.'
Later the traders acquired a storeroom to keep their wares in overnight – it soon became a new location where the girls could be abused.
By now dehumanised by their treatment, the girls were callously passed on by Zahid to paedophile taxi drivers from Rochdale's Pakistani community in return for payment.
One was regularly raped by members of the grooming ring at what she described as a 'horror house' in Oldham.
Girl B – who was raped by the two market traders and shopkeeper Ahmed - told jurors that she was sexually abused by 'close to 100' men.
Since being released from a five-year sentence in 2016, Zahid is understood to have been living off benefits.
The latest convictions represent the eighth time that a group of men of mainly Pakistani heritage have been convicted of grooming girls for sex in Rochdale in the early 2000s.
A further 20 men have been charged with similar offences, with five further trials planned stretching towards the end of 2026.
It is little wonder that one of the men's own barristers told jurors in the latest trial that Rochdale was 'now not synonymous with the great achievements of the Industrial Revolution' but with 'what has become known as Asian grooming gangs'.
Greater Manchester Police insist their attitude towards victims of organised sexual abuse today is 'light years' ahead of what it was two decades ago.
It now has a dedicated major incident team for large-scale child sexual abuse cases with almost 100 investigators.
Nevertheless campaigners and victims' groups insist that there are still not enough resources being put into rounding up today's gangs.
Police chiefs themselves admit abusers have simply changed their tactics, targeting victims through vape shops or sleazy back-street hotels.
Meanwhile Rochdale council has stressed that no one involved in failing the girls in the early 2000s still works there.
The Rochdale grooming scandal – later brought to mass TV audiences by the hard-hitting BBC1 drama Three Girls - has its roots in takeaways in the Greater Manchester former mill town.
Maggie Oliver, a former detective involved in the first large-scale investigation into grooming in Rochdale who later turned whistleblower and set up a foundation speaking out on behalf of victims
In 2008 a 15-year-old girl was arrested after smashing the counter at one of the takeaways.
She told officers that two men – among them Shabir Ahmed, now serving a 22-year prison sentence - had subjected her to repeated sexual abuse, plying her with vodka before raping her.
But despite evidence which included DNA swabs from her underwear, a senior CPS lawyer ruled there was no prospect of conviction and the pair were never charged.
The decision was taken during Sir Keir Starmer's term as Director of Public Prosecutions – he later suggested they were let down due to 'an issue of ethnicity' coupled with a 'lack of understanding' of the victims.
Over the next two years, dozens of white teenagers were abused by older men in the gang.
Finally in 2010 Nazir Afzal was appointed chief crown prosecutor for North West England and ordered file to be re-examined.
Twelve men were arrested, but many of the girls were too scared to give evidence in court or regarded the men as their boyfriends despite the age gap.
However five bravely agreed to testify against their abusers.
Their courage was vindicated in 2012 when Ahmed – then 59 - and eight other men were jailed for a total of 77 years for raping and abusing up to 47 girls aged as young as 13.
Their convictions sparked a heated debate over the predominantly Pakistani make-up of the gang and whether political correctness had played a part in the reluctance to tackle grooming across the North of England.
It also led to another victim coming forward with a further nine men given sentences of up to 25 years.
Meanwhile a new Greater Manchester Police investigation – dubbed Operation Doublet – into 'missed opportunities' during the initial Rochdale grooming inquiries would see another 20 men jailed over four separate trials.
During this investigation a grooming survivor told police she had been sexually abused by hundreds of men, but did not want to testify against them.
However in 2015 – as the Operation Doublet cases were going to court - she changed her mind and agreed to tell detectives about her ordeal.
Police launched a 'vast' new and still ongoing investigation – Operation Lytton – based on what she could recall of locations where the abuse took place and the men's nicknames.
Ninety-four people have so far been interviewed as suspects, with around 50 potential victims.
It finally reached trial in 2023 when five men were convicted of abusing her and another victim and jailed for 71 and a half years.
The second trial concluded today with a further seven men convicted for abusing the same survivor – Girl A - and a third victim, Girl B.
Five more trials are planned, all relating to abuse from the early 2000s.
Senior detectives today accused the latest grooming gang of targeting girls with 'unimaginable depravity'.
Paying tribute to the bravery of the victims for testifying against the gang, Detective Superintendent Alan Clitherow, head of GMP's Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team, said police wanted to reassure grooming survivors 'you will be believed'.
'We've acknowledged in the past that we haven't served victims the way we should have done,' he said.
'But now we've invested in learning, we're getting better, and we've got specialist officers dealing with victims, which is really important.
'I really want to pay tribute to both victims, the bravery and dignity to stand up in court and talk about the abuse that they've endured is incredible.'
Defending the time it has taken for the cases to come to court, a detective on the case said investigating allegations from 20 years ago was 'massively challenging'.
Timeline of the Rochdale grooming gang scandals
2008 - A 15-year-old girl reports to police she has been raped repeatedly by a gang of men, and gives details of the abuse taking place above a takeaway in Rochdale. Police arrest two members of a grooming gang - ringleader Shabir Ahmed and Kabeer Hassan.
2009 - Police find evidence that Ahmed had sex with the girl, with the older man claiming she could have swapped underwear with a different young girl he had already admitted to having sex with. Later that year a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer rules that the victim's evidence is 'not credible' and decides the accused should be released without charge.
2010 - Operation Span, a new operation looking into allegations of grooming gangs in Rochdale, is launched with DC Maggie Oliver involved.
2011 - Chief prosecutor for the CPS North West, Nazir Afzal, reverses this decision and authorises charges against the pair.
2012 - His decision is vindicated when Ahmed – then 59 - and eight other men were jailed for a total of 77 years for raping and abusing up to 47 girls aged as young as 13. This sparks apologies from the police, council and CPS for failures that allowed the men to continue abusing girls for an additional two years.
2013 - Maggie Oliver resigns from Greater Manchester Police, claiming that evidence was ignored that could have convicted men who weren't part of the nine jailed the year before.
2016 - A second group of men are sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for sexual abuse after a victim, encouraged by previous convictions, comes forward with her ordeal.
2017 - A BBC documentary titled The Betrayed Girls features whistleblowers Ms Oliver and Sara Rowbothan, who ran an NHS sexual health clinic in Rochdale, with claims about grooming gangs. Both alleged that multiple known abusers were left free to prey on a generation of girls, with grooming culture embedded in parts of the town. The same year Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, orders a series of reports into how victims were protected up to 2013.
2023 - Five men are given sentences totalling more than 70 years after being found guilty of abusing two girls between 2002 and 2006.
2024 - The third of four reports into grooming gangs - and the first to focus on Rochdale - is released and points the finger at police and council bosses for failing to protect girls from their abusers.
'You don't have the golden hour, the initial opportunities that you do in a in the investigation where a crime just happened,' he said.
'There's no CCTV, limited phone work. Digital evidence goes out of the window, forensic evidence, it doesn't exist.
'You're relying massively on what the victims are telling you, and you're having to trawl through historical records.
'That's a challenge as well, because they get lost, they get deleted, they get purged.'
'So it's incredibly challenging for the investigation and for the victims.'
Detectives on a special unit tasked with investigating major sex abuse rings worked with specialist prosecutors to split the case into multiple trials – each lasting several months - to make them manageable for jurors.
'Where we get a result for a victim and we get some justice, we hope that that for another victim it gives them the courage to take that step,' said Senior district Crown prosecutor Christopher Trotter.
'It's not going to prevent that trauma impacting their whole life, but it may bring some justice and have some impact to being able to move forward.'
However court delays and over-running trials have also slowed the process of securing justice.
A report into the Rochdale grooming gangs scandal ordered by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham last year found a generation of girls had been failed.
Its lead author, child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam, identified 96 men who are still deemed a potential risk to children.
He concluded that two 'lone voices' - Sara Rowbotham, co-ordinator of a young people's Crisis Intervention Team, and Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Detective Constable turned whistleblower - had flagged clear evidence of 'prolific serial rape of countless children in Rochdale'.
But this was not acted upon, with the children's unwillingness to make a formal complaint repeatedly used as an excuse for not investigating.
'GMP and Rochdale Council failed to prioritise the protection of children who were being sexually exploited by a significant number of men within the Rochdale area,' Mr Newsam wrote.
'Successive police operations were launched over this period, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation.
'Consequently, children were left at risk and many of their abusers to this day have not been apprehended.'
At the time, Mr Burnham called the report 'a detailed and distressing account of how many young people were so seriously failed'.
Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott said the authority was 'deeply sorry' for the 'very serious failures that affected the lives of children in our borough' and how officials 'failed to take the necessary action'.
And Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson said it was 'a matter of profound regret' that victims of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale in the early 2000s were 'failed' by the force.
A series of initiatives have taken place around Rochdale since 2012, including better engagement with potential victims and a scheme encouraging hotel owners and taxi firms to report concerns.
Last year, an Ofsted report into Rochdale Council said 'children at risk receive an effective response'.
But following the report, Ms Oliver hit out at more than a decade of 'failures, lies and cover ups'.
She has since set up a foundation to help victims of child sex abuse, saying it see 'on a daily basis that victims and survivors of sexual offences are still routinely treated badly or even inhumanely, still not believed, still judged, still dismissed when they report these horrendous crimes'.
Sharon Hubber, director of children's services, said: 'We know that these convictions are unlikely to erase the memories of the abuse these women were subjected to as children, but we hope they do bring some form of closure. We know that more could and should have been done by the people who were working here at the time and for that we are truly sorry.'