Grooming gang victims want justice, not yet another inquiry

As specialists review hundreds of closed cases, exploitation and abuse are 'still going on'

- Jon Ungoed-Thomas & John Simpson

Samantha Walker-Roberts vividly remembers the day she walked into the police station in Oldham town centre to report that she had been sexually assaulted in a churchyard.

The officer on the front desk accused her of being drunk and told her to return with an adult when she sobered up. She was 12 years old.

Confused and upset, she accepted a lift home from two men who were also at the police station, and told her she could “chill” in their car.

Walker-Roberts was sexually assaulted by them and later driven to a property and raped by five men over several hours. Nearly two decades later, she is still seeking justice.

One of her attackers, Shakil Chowdhury, 54, from Bangladesh, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 2007. She believes there were missed opportunities to find others in the gang.

Last Wednesday, Walker-Roberts, who has waived her right to anonymity to campaign for victims of grooming gangs, received a letter from Kate Green, deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, telling her that the police had decided that there would be no further charges “despite the atrocious offending you had been subjected to”.