Can compensation be claimed for police failure to investigate abuse?
We have highlighted elsewhere on this website police failure to investigate abuse. One particularly sensitive aspect of this issue relates to the Rochdale abuse scandal.
The scandal has dominated the headlines since its exposure and has resulted in the conviction of 42 males for abusing 13 children. However, while many of the initial headlines praised the police operation, a recent enquiry has unearthed significant failings of both the Greater Manchester Police Force (GMP) and Rochdale Borough Council.
It has been identified that between 2003 and 2012, numerous victims were failed in being safeguarded from the predators responsible for abusing and trafficking young girls. GMP identified ring leaders of the gang in 2007 and even described them as being ‘prolific career-criminals’. But victims were often not believed, did not receive the care they deserved. Their cases were insufficiently prioritised or resourced. The report also highlighted an alarming number of referrals submitted to police by the Crisis Intervention Team, which generally went unacted upon and again opportunities to protect vulnerable children were missed.
Individual victims were failed by different means, but all victims were seriously failed in being protected. When one of the victims’ cases was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), they deemed the victim to be ‘unreliable’ and would not proceed further. GMP has since apologised for not challenging this decision.
When a 13-year-old victim was raped by her abuser and fell pregnant, she had her aborted foetus secretly taken by the police for DNA testing, which neither her or nor her parents had any knowledge of until two years later. Another 15-year-old victim also fell pregnant and successfully gave birth to her “pimp’s” child, yet no case by the police followed despite being below the age of consent. Other victims reported to police that their abusers had kept them in cages and were made to bark like dogs, yet the police force took no action. A further victim was arrested under suspicion of being a co-conspirator in the sexual exploitation of children and when released from custody, was bailed back to her abuser’s address who had previously been arrested himself under suspicion of grooming.
The failures didn’t end during the investigation process. One of the victims whose abuser was successfully convicted was not aware when her abuser was released from prison. This led to her unsuspectingly bumping into her abuser in a local supermarket. Another victim was threatened with a gun prior to her trial and other’s have returned to find their houses in disarray.
The report stated that in 2012, the police were aware of 127 possible victims and it is estimated there may be as many as 160 potential victims. The review looked into 111 children’s cases and found evidence of 74 of them being sexually exploited. Within this group, 48 had experienced ‘serious failures’ by the police to protect them. The control and coercion that was used towards the victims to stop them from supporting police investigations was overlooked or dismissed and instead their report was filed with a reasoning of ‘victim not willing to make a formal complaint’.
One of the detectives who played a role during the Rochdale abuse scandal resigned from the force in order to expose the horrifying failings. She is still campaigning for justice and states failures are ongoing, despite it being reported that there has been a major overhaul in the way police deal with cases of child abuse. It is deemed that there are a further 96 men who are a potential risk to children and it cannot be guaranteed that this figure is not higher.
If you believe you have been failed by the police, please contact our free confidential helpline for a case assessment and details of a No Win, No Fee funding arrangement.
Call us confidentially on freephone 0333 888 0419 or email us at [email protected].