Police failings have hampered fight against child abuse, says MP

Simon Danczuk MP

A catalogue of police failures has allowed sex-grooming gangs to flourish in Rochdale, Simon Danczuk MP has argued.

Commenting on the publication of seven Serious Case Reviews today, Rochdale’s MP said his concerns about police lacking the right “soft skills” to win over the trust of victims had been vindicated.

The report acknowledged that the use of untrained CID officers to investigate child sexual exploitation cases was a significant concern. It also acknowledged there was a clear knowledge gap and that “a lack of response to the young people was in part a result of discriminatory attitudes towards them.”

“This highlights exactly the concern I raised earlier this year when I said there needed to be a change of culture within GMP in tackling child abuse,” said Mr Danczuk. “I have also said judgments were made against young people on council estates because of their background and class, and this report confirms this. The approach has been completely wrong. Senior police officers keep talking about deploying more resources, but they’re sending out untrained officers who cannot win the trust of victims. We need better leadership on this issue.”

After calling for a Serious Case Review in May last year at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Danczuk added that it was disappointing to see the report “sneaked out on the last Friday before Christmas” but said it had laid bare serious failings.

“It worries me that the reports show there is evidence of a focus on performance targets, which has meant that child sexual exploitation is not a police priority,” he said. “This crime has done a huge amount of damage to our town and the police have to give it more attention.”

Further evidence to support this lack of police interest is shown in the admission that of 40 child protection conferences for one of the victims there is no record of police attendance or involvement.

The author of the report argues “this represents a serious weakness for the police” and that concerns around police attendance were raised back in 2009.

“As a result the Review has been left with an incomplete and unsatisfactory picture of the involvement of the Police in the routine Child Protection processes,” it concludes.

As the latest in a series of reports into the Rochdale grooming scandal, Mr Danczuk said it was time to put a stop to endless inquiries and get on with the important work of change.

“There has been enough reports for us to know that the Rochdale grooming scandal was allowed to go on too long because of a collective failure on the part of a number of agencies,” he said. “It’s time now to see the frontline changes that are desperately needed. Young people continually tell me they do not trust the police and we need to see strong leadership to start rebuilding this trust.

“This report shows that policies, culture and attitudes within many agencies were actively unhelpful when dealing with victims of child abuse and that’s why we have to see a very different approach,” he said.

Mr Danczuk welcomed a number of the recommendations including all police staff being trained to a minimum required standard, more emphasis on challenging CPS decisions and the establishment of a national network of child sexual abuse trained prosecutors to achieve more convictions.