GMP apologises after documentary exposes scandal

Channel 4 programme aired last week

- BY NEAL KEELING

GMP has apologised for 'a clear failure to listen' to victims of grooming gangs after the screening of a hard hitting documentary.

Channel 4's 'Groomed' exposed the systematic failure of the police and other authorities that were meant to protect exploited young girls, as young as 11.

Now, a senior GMP officer said 'it must never happen again' and lessons had 'long since been learnt.'

The film, by Anna Hall, which was aired on April 30, revealed how councils and police across England turned a blind eye, despite a wealth of evidence, and teams set up to tackle the scandal were disbanded.

Infamously, one task-force was Operation Augusta, set up by GMP after the 2003 death of 15-year-old Victoria Agoglia.

Victoria, who was living in a home under the responsibility of Manchester city council, died after she was injected with heroin by a man then aged 50. She died in 2003, but prior to her death she had disclosed to social workers that she was being forcibly injected with drugs, and raped, but no effective action was taken to protect her.

It was her death that began to expose the widespread child sexual abuse of girls in the Greater Manchester area. It prompted Greater Manchester Police to launch Augusta during which evidence came to light that Victoria had been subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse for several years prior to her death.

Augusta identified up to 97 suspected offenders and at least 57 children believed to be potential victims. But a review commissioned by Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, in 2017 discovered it was discontinued in July 2005 due to resources.

The operation was led by Detective Constable Maggie Oliver, who says in the Channel 4 documentary that it took just weeks to find evidence of grooming gangs.