Andy Burnham has issued an update on Greater Manchester Police's investigations into grooming gangs following a new report.
The report by the police inspectorate comes after a series of damning verdicts into GMP's historic handling of child exploitation in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale. But the Greater Manchester mayor said the new report shows the force is 'much better' now.
Mr Burnham said that thanks to the review he commissioned in 2017 - which revealed 'serious strategic and systemic failures' in the force - offenders are now being brought to justice as he shared details of ongoing operations into historic child sexual exploitation. However, chief constable Stephen Watson admitted the officers responsible for serious failings in the past are not being punished.
READ MORE: GMP must do more to keep children safe from online exploitation, inspectors find
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, former GMP detective turned whistleblower Maggie Oliver said that senior officers should be held to account even if they are retired. The campaigner, who now supports victims of child sexual exploitation, also told the M.E.N. that GMP's progress in prosecuting offenders has been too slow, saying that it is 'unacceptable' that many survivors are still waiting.
The latest report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) comes after Mr Burnham commissioned the body to conduct the last stage of his review. The police inspectorate has now published an update on this work, alongside another report which graded GMP's performance across five areas, assessing how well it safeguards children who are at risk.
Children today are better protected, Mayor says
Responding to the findings, Mr Burnham said: "What is being placed into the public domain today is very significant in terms of the assurance I have received. On the national inspection, HMIC judges GMP to be good or adequate in all areas relating to child protection.
"On the wider Greater Manchester system, the inspector's report says it is encouraged by what they found and describes the Greater Manchester complex safeguarding system as a 'unique regional multi-agency collaboration largely meeting its mission of reducing risk and harm from child, criminal and sexual exploitation'.
"So on the back of that, today, I can say to the Greater Manchester public for the first time with independent assurance, that you can be confident that the Greater Manchester system is much stronger than it was and that children today are much better protected."
Mr Burnham thanked survivors who 'bravely' came forward to tell their stories which led him commission a review into child sexual exploitation in 2017. He said that as a result of that review, 'doors are being knocked on and offenders are being brought to justice'.
He revealed Operation Green Jacket, which was launched in 2019 to investigate non-recent child sexual exploitation in Manchester, has resulted in 67 arrests so far with one person charged and set to face trail for six offences next year. Operation Lytton, which is looking at cases in Rochdale, has seen 96 arrests, five people convicted and sentences to a cumulative total of 71 years in prison.
There are three further trials scheduled for next year where 26 defendants face over 200 charges, Mr Burnham said. As well as these investigations, two men have been charged with 200 offences including rape as part of an operation launched in 2021 in Bolton.
Another two men have recently been convicted as part of an operation investigating offences committed against boys in the eighties and nineties in and around Rochdale and Manchester with the 'main culprit' sent to prison for 27 years. Mr Burnham said that these are 'real results' and the improvements highlighted by HMICFRS in its national child protection inspection report are 'real achievements'.
'Adequate is never enough when safeguarding children'
However, Ms Oliver, whose whistleblowing helped expose failings in the force, said that the inspectorate's latest finds - that GMP is only 'adequate' in some areas of child protection - is not good enough. She cited the tragic case of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl from Surrey, whose father and stepmother have this week been found guilty of murdering her after subjecting her to 'horrific suffering'.
Responding to the HMIFRC report, Ms Oliver said: "This is a piece of paper, but to be honest, my initial reaction is that adequate is never enough when talking about safeguarding children. For something to be adequate is never enough. Sarah Sharif's case shows clearly that when something is only adequate, children die."
Ms Oliver praised senior officers at GMP for working with her charity which supports survivors of child sexual exploitation. But she said it is still taking too long for offenders to be prosecuted, claiming that some survivors have 'disengaged' with the process as a result.
She also argued that officers who were responsible for serious failings at GMP in the past should be punished. It comes after the force's chief constable said that GMP has not found evidence to justify holding anyone 'criminally culpable' for a professional failing.
Mr Watson said: "We undertook and have looked at all of those past failings. We have assessed those failings line by line.
"There are individuals, of course, bearing in mind that a lot of these failings took place many, many years ago, who no longer work for GMP or for any of our partner agencies, candidly at the level of poor practice and poor professional practice, sub the criminal threshold, there is not a lot we can do other than to point out what those past failings were and to learn from them. Insofar as officers within GMP, we have had on occasion individuals who have had reflective practice.
"What we have not seen, in fairness, is individuals held to a criminal standard of culpability in respect of past failings. These are for the most part systemic failings and these are failings that really stem from poor leadership systems and processes, rather than individual culpability, criminal or otherwise.
"To this extent, we have not as yet found evidence to substantiate holding anybody criminally culpable for a professional failing. It is more systemic and it is that that we have addressed and that is what this report reflects."
Responding to the chief constable's comments, Ms Oliver said: "If people are wrong and it's proven that they've knowingly done wrong, they've not worked within the confines of the law, they are personally responsible. Just because the've retired, that should not mean that they are no longer accountable.
"The way the system's set up, that's how they get away with it. The system is broken."
Earlier this year, Mr Burnham and his deputy Kate Green announced that the final part of the independent child sexual exploitation assurance review, which will look at the current practices in place at GMP and all 10 Greater Manchester councils, would be led by HMICFRS. In a letter to Mr Burnham today (December 13), His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer said she is 'pleased' with some of the aspects of the force's work in safeguarding children at risk and set out how it needs to improve.
She also shared initial findings from the inspectorate's work on the mayor's review, saying that inspectors are 'encouraged' by what they have found so far. But she said there is still a 'considerable amount of work to do' with the final report to be published next June
Responding to the update on the independent assurance review and the national child protection inspection report published today, Ms Green said: "We cannot undo the harm those children suffered and the trauma that many continue to experience as adults. But we can and must ensure that no child growing up in Greater Manchester today or in the future will be failed by our public services in the way that those children were failed so badly. That will be my priority in the coming months and years."
