Calls for National Investigation into Rape Gangs

Calls for National Investigation into Rape Gangs

by TIM HICKS

~~~~~

Introduction

The NYE readership will all be aware of the controversy surrounding the decision of Mrs. Jess Phillips MP, the grandiosely titled “Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls”, to reject a request from Oldham Council for a public inquiry into the sickening scandals of rape gangs (often misdescribed as “grooming gangs”) primarily of Pakistani* men, who raped and tortured girls with impunity in Manchester. Similar crimes were perpetrated at other locations across the UK

Their victims were overwhelmingly underage white girls from vulnerable backgrounds who were often in care homes. They were hooked on drugs, then groomed, tortured and raped. One of them – fifteen-year-old Victoria Agoglia – died after being injected with heroin by one of these men.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for an immediate National Inquiry into this scandal and has severely criticized Mrs. Phillips over her decision.

The NYE’s Approach

There are very few media outlets that have as strong a record as the NYE for opposing child abuse. It was the NYE that single-handedly exposed Police complicity in the Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile paedophile ring in Scarborough, which involved grooming then raping schoolchildren. We are currently exposing a grooming gang at Throxenby Hall residential care home just outside Scarborough and the abuse of children at Kirklevington Detention Centre (KDC), which is alleged to have involved police officers from North Yorkshire Police (NYP) and five other forces.

In doing this, we have criticized anyone irrespective of their race, colour, religion, sex or political persuasion involved in wrongdoing. We have not been intimidated by the power and status of those who have covered up child abuse. Obviously this has not gone down well with powerful people who have something to hide. So consequently, we have faced threats of legal action over the years from various parties. Each of which we have fought off.

Most of the cases we have investigated have involved white boys, because of the nature of the area and the paedophile rings that historically were operating in Scarborough. However the NYE team believes that sexual abuse of children is wrong whatever their sex or colour, and it is wrong to have a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, while excluding vulnerable boys from this protection.

I would comment:

• Thousands of girls were raped with the full knowledge and acquiescence of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), care officers and social workers. In some cases they were picked up in cars from Council care homes and driven to meet men to be raped, with the full knowledge of care workers and social workers. As with the Peter Jaconelli scandal, not one social worker, care officer, Councillor, prosecutor, teacher, school governor, or police officer has ever been imprisoned for misconduct in public office over their failure to intervene and protect the children they were charged with safeguarding.
• Former GMP Detective Constable Maggie Oliver who founded The Maggie Oliver Foundation to help victims of abuse has confirmed that rape gangs are still operating. Many predators have not been charged and many who have been convicted have not been deported at the end of their sentence. So the official response to this scandal is one of complete failure.
• It is rank hypocrisy for the leader of the Conservative party to use this issue to criticize Mrs. Phillips and call for a National Inquiry, given that the last Conservative Government failed to implement the recommendations of multiple investigations and rejected calls for a national inquiry when in office. Which has led to the current failure to resolve this problem.
• The scale of this scandal is so large in multiple locations across the country, that it is a national disgrace and obviously beyond the resources of Oldham Council -or any other council to investigate it. Only a national investigation can resolve this issue.
• Things will only change in my view when police officers and officials at all levels know that if they cover up child abuse, they will be held to account for it. The only way this will happen is if there is a public enquiry. So in my view the decision by Mrs Phillips to reject the request from Oldham Council for a public inquiry is a disgrace. The question arises why she has reversed her position from 2018, when she supported a public inquiry to now, when as a feminist she has prevented one. It should be said at this point that:
• In many inner cities the Labour Party has been able to rely on the votes of Pakistani heritage voters for historic reasons. However, this changed in the 2024 election as a result of the Labour Party stance on the war in Gaza, when George Galloway’s Workers Party stood against Labour in many constituencies. The result was that Labour majorities were halved in some constituencies. In, Mrs. Phillips Birmingham Yardley constituency her majority changed from 10,659 over the Conservatives in 2019, to 693 over the Workers Party in 2024. A very narrow lead indeed.
• Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer has been accused of not prosecuting Pakistani rape gangs effectively when he was the Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Allegedly because he believed it could be considered racist.

It has been suggested that Mrs. Phillips has made this decision because any public inquiry into predominantly Pakistani rape gangs’ risks alienating core Labour support from the inner cities and criticism of Sir Kier Starmer for failing to prosecute them. If this is so, then it is despicable. Be that as it may, it is clear that this issue has been treated as a political football by both parties, that no effective action has been taken and the recommendations of multiple inquiries have all been ignored.

[* I have used Pakistani not Asian throughout the article because this reflects the actuality. Men of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Malayan, Indonesian heritage etc. were not involved in these crimes and it is wrong to associate men from other nations with them.]

The NYP Connection: Chief Constable Dave Jones

Following the airing of the BBC documentary, The Betrayed Girls, about child abuse in Manchester, it was alleged that the grooming gangs were given free reign because the Police, social workers and local councillors did not want to face allegations of racism; and because the police held the victims in contempt because they were working class, many from care homes. The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham announced a review of child protection in Manchester in July 2017.

In April 2018, NYP Chief Constable Jones suddenly went on two weeks annual leave and applied for retirement. He then went on sick leave until his retirement date in July 2018.

When the Mayor’s review was published it identified that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) CID and social workers knew that rape gangs were raping children on an industrial scale but did nothing. This January 2020, the Manchester Evening News (MEN) article Operation Augusta senior cops in key positions when Manchester child grooming case was dropped named Chief Constable Jones who in 2005 led GMP CID as one of the Senior Officers that ordered the closure of the investigation into rape gangs codenamed Operation Augusta without any convictions. This decision ensured the rape gangs were allowed to continue raping children unhindered by the Police. According to the MEN article, Chief Constable Jones declined to appear before the Mayor’s enquiry after retirement, because he said he could not remember the details of what had happened.

Because he was retired, he could not be ordered to appear before the inquiry.

This 2022 follow-up article from the MEN Anger as second watchdog review fails reveals that Chief Constable Jones and two other senior officers were referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over the closure of Operation Augusta. However, according to the MEN the IOPC investigation failed to identify who had ordered the closure of Operation Augusta because the minutes/documentation of the April 2005 Gold meeting could not be found and because some police witnesses would not engage with the investigation. The IOPC Commented:

“Following a review in May 2022 of the substantial amount of evidence gathered, we determined there was no indication any of the three former officers had acted in a way that may have breached the standards of professional behaviour. As this meant there was no legal basis to continue the investigation, it was discontinued”

The North Yorkshire Rape Gang: Throxenby Hall

The NYE investigation into a rape gang at the North Yorkshire County Council (now North Yorkshire Council (NYC)) residential care home at Throxenby Hall has met similar stonewalling. Pupils at a care home were groomed and trafficked to a ring of rapists based in Scarborough led by the Mayor, Peter Jaconelli which included Jimmy Savile. Like the Manchester scandals, children from the home were picked up and taken away in a car to be raped elsewheere. This occurred with the full knowledge of NYC care officers and social workers.

The only differences between the Throxenby Hall scandal and all the other scandals across the country are that the victims at Throxenby Hall were boys and the perpetrators were white.

In the case of the Manchester grooming scandals, the determination of a principled politician Mayor Andy Burnham ensured the truth came out. Not the actions of the police or social workers.

In North Yorkshire the NYE’s enquiries to NYC, NYP Chief Constable Forber and the York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire & Crime, Jo Coles, have all been ignored. They have thrown a veil of secrecy over what was going on at Throxenby Hall. Exactly the same approach that GMP and local Councils took in Manchester.

Despite the scale of the abuse and number of witnesses, none of the NYC Residential Care Officers who were grooming boys and trafficking them to Jaconelli, or the NYC Social Workers who protected them have ever been convicted. They have all been perfectly protected. Likewise with KDC. This is because no politician of Mayor Burnham’s stature in North Yorkshire to ensure there was an investigation.

Will rape gangs continue to rape children of both sexes with impunity?

The media has played a crucial role in exposing this scandal, not the Police or social workers. That is why it is so important we have a free press that is able to criticize public bodies including particularly the police.

To resolve this issue and prevent any more gang rapes of children both male and female on an ongoing basis:

1. The remit of the safeguarding minister should be changed to “Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Children”, so it covers both boys and girls.
2. All parties should immediately commit to implementing the recommendations of all previous inquiries into child sexual abuse.
3. The currently existing crime of misconduct in public office is not specific or strong enough. The current gap in the law should be closed with a new offence of failing to report or investigate child abuse.
4. Any official that has historically failed to report child abuse should if possible be prosecuted under the common law offence of misconduct in public office. (This could of course include Chief Constable Jones and/or the other Officers present at the Gold meeting that closed down Operation Augusta; multiple NYC social workers and residential care officers who are still alive and could still face prosecution, those participating in the current cover up into the Throxenby Hall rape gang and those that participated in the wider cover up into Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile, including NYP Deputy Chief Constable Sue Cross).
5. There is a public inquiry into this scandal – including Mrs. Phillips decision to prohibit one – and commitment from all parties to immediately implement its recommendations.
6. The inquiry should not be limited to Pakistani rape gangs, but should include rape gangs of all nationalities and religions in all alllocations
7. Maggie Oliver should be made a life peer and appointed to the House of Lords in recognition of her work to combat sexual abuse of children, as Doreen Lawrence was over her efforts to combat racism and police corruption, following the murder of her son.

This story is not going to go away and the NYE will continue to support the calls for reform of the law on child abusers and those that facilitate it by turning a blind eye, who are just as guilty.