'Serious Failings' In Oldham Exposed Children To Sexual Exploitation, Review Finds

Vulnerable children were left exposed to sexual exploitation in Oldham, Greater Manchester, because of "serious failings" by the police and council, a damning independent review has found.

- Josh Halliday

The report found there were multiple missed opportunities to prevent abuse stretching back to 2005, including offences committed by a council welfare officer who was later convicted of 30 rapes.

The review suggested senior police and council officers may have misled the Commons home affairs select committee when denying wrongdoing over the "profound sexual exploitation" of a 12-year-old girl.

It criticised Greater Manchester police's "less than candid" approach to MPs and said both agencies' response to the victim's concerns "feed a view" that they were "more concerned about covering up their failures than acknowledging the harm that had been done to a vulnerable young person".

The review, commissioned by Oldham council in 2019, is the latest to examine child sexual exploitation in English towns following similarly damning reports on Rotherham, Oxford and Rochdale.

The authors, the child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam and the former senior police officer Gary Ridgway, found no evidence to suggest Oldham council sought to cover up child sexual exploitation or shy away from the issue of abuse of vulnerable white girls predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage.