GMP was borderline incompetent over grooming scandal, says top cops

THE chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has admitted the force was 'borderline incompetent' in its handling of the Rochdale grooming gangs.

- SOPHIE HALLE-RICHARDS

Stephen Watson also said that officers working for GMP at the time 'parked an element of professional curiosity' in the way it dealt with the issue.

He said it was something he had been assured is now ‘radically different!

It comes after GMP agreed to pay substantial damages to three victims.

All were children when they were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by gangs of men in Rochdale.

Mr. Watson also offered the women an in-person apology for the police failings in their cases - namely mistakes in not investigating the abusers, and often treating the girls as perpetrators and not victims.

The chief yesterday acknowledged that his predecessors had 'failed' children in the past, and said that under his leadership, cases are dealt with very differently.