it was called operation or gusta an
innocuous name for a police
investigation that's raised many more
questions than it ever answered it began
with Victoria Golia a child groomed and
raped while in care
she'd be 32 this year she's been dead
longer than she lived she's died and
they they're not something happened
since their granddaughters deaths Joan
has refused to accept the official
version
and she's rights those meant to protect
her granddaughter did know what was
happening
they knew Victoria was being raped they
knew other girls in care were being
raped too but the investigation
triggered by Victoria's death was closed
down its resources pulled so the abuse
carried on today with the police
whistleblower who exposed the failings
next to her the new official version was
revealed our report has established that
most of the children we considered were
failed by Greater Manchester Police and
Manchester City Council the authorities
knew that many were being subjected to
the most profound abuse and exploitation
but did not protect them this is a
depressingly familiar picture seen in
many other towns and cities across the
country
many other places and thousands more
children for years the girls were
dismissed as troublemakers social
workers and police who spoke out were
ignored the investigation in Manchester
was one of the first officers identified
dozens of victims and close to a hundred
potential suspects but then it was
stopped when senior officers decided to
pull all its resources this wasn't a
mistake by senior police officers this
was a deliberate closing down of a live
investigation because for ever reason
they couldn't be bothered they left
those kids to their own devices they let
the men continue to to abuse children
they will not have stopped for me there
should be accountability now Maggie's
the only person here today you used the
word cover-up do any of the rest of you
think this is a cover-up but I heard
Maggie say that this had been abruptly
closed I wanted to know the reason why
and that's what I asked Malcolm and Gary
to find what what was the reason for
this being terminated so abruptly and
the records say it was a question of
resources tonight they were called for
new inquest into Victoria ago Leah's
death the original verdict said there
was no suggestion it should have been
foreseen even though her support workers
knew were man had been injecting her
with heroin while police say there's now
a new investigation I want to apologize
to all of those vulnerable children who
were let down in 2004 when Greater
Manchester police did not thoroughly
investigate the current offenses that
had been committed against them I want
to say that I'm personally disgusted
that these children were not cared for
and the awful abuse they suffered I'm
committed to doing all that we can to
ensure that they receive the justice
today that they were denied 15 years ago
there were many faults long everybody's
loved her well today auntie burn and the
mayor of Greater Manchester said that
this case should have been a wake-up
call but instead the investigation was
closed abruptly and that was wrong the
report published today does not name the
police officers said to have been
involved in making that decision but
this evening Channel 4 News can reveal
that one of those senior police officers
was dave thompson who is now the chief
constable of west midlands police one of
biggest police forces in the country he
has confirmed that to us this evening
but he is also distancing himself from
the decision-making in a statement he
says that he was a district commander
with greater manchester police at the
time and not in charge of Criminal
Investigations he said he was never
involved in the operation Agusta
investigation he says that he
acknowledges the report does identify
him as having been at a meeting and
having made the decision about resources
but he says that it wouldn't have been
for a police officer of his role to make
that kind of decision he goes on to say
that he would not have made that
decision with that kind of investigation
but he also apologizes because he was
working for the Greater Manchester
Police at that point in time for
failings within the investigation so des
Thompson Chief Constable of West
Midlands Police confirming to us this
evening that he was involved in the
report that was published today
highlighting failings in this case Clare
Fallon reporting from Manchester thanks
John well now see us all is the former
chief crown prosecutor for the North
West of England and had responsibility
for prosecutions including those of the
Rochdale grooming gang he joins us now
from Cardiff nezu Castle we've had
Rotherham we've had rot stay with her
Telford Oxford now the scale of the
Manchester grooming scandal can this
happen again easy it happening again now
undoubtedly the decisions taken in
Augusta in the early 2000s were a choice
you know when people say resources were
yeah it was under-resourced well that's
a choice when you say it's a low
priority that's a choice and so those
who are engaged in safeguarding children
in the first decade of this century made
a choice the children who are being
sexually abused being raped would not be
protected by the system well that is
extraordinary and ridiculous but at the
same time has to be said that in the
last whilst there was massive progress
in the first half of the last decade
Rossdale you mentioned Rotherham and
others others we were slipping backwards
we're slipping backwards because there
are fewer police officers there are
fewer experts for your specialists fewer
people in child services fewer
prosecutors and so I'm not as confident
as I was four or five years ago that we
are getting on top of this subject and
yes we're getting cases coming through
the court pretty much routinely but the
reality of course is that victims from
15 years ago
didn't get justice so the chances of you
getting justice right now are as as
limited as there could be well and what
should happen to the people responsible
for failing victims here I mean should
they be charged with gross misconduct
misconduct in public office what should
happen to them well that I mean
obviously that I don't know the
circumstances of the decision-making
I've seen something in the report that
talks about people saying that children
should have managed their own behaviors
as if somehow the children were
responsible for what happened to them it
talks about the perpetrators being
allowed to get on with it and then
ultimately reoffending those are those
are terrible outcomes and yes there
ought to be accountability I'm very
strongly in favor of people being held
to account but I have to put this in
perspective Greater Manchester is not a
standalone there would be probably 43
chief constables 43 senior management
teams up and down the country who have
similar cases who simply either turned a
blind eye or decided it wasn't their
priority and so we would have a
situation if we held everybody to
account where hundreds of people would
be held to account and you also have to
remember this a few months ago the prime
minister said that dealing with or
tackling child sexual abuse was like
staffing money up a wall the reality is
the police officers and chief police
officers around the country agreed with
him they made a choice they decided it
was something they were not going to
spend their money on
and as a result hundreds if not
thousands of young people particularly
women have been abused and continue to
be abused and offenders have been able
to walk around the streets not of
Greater Manchester of everywhere and be
able to do so with impunity and one of
the reasons the report suggests quoting
an unnamed Greater Manchester Police
Detective is that that that the quote
from report what had a massive input was
the offending target group were
predominantly Asian males and we were
told to try and get other ethnicities in
your view how big a part did political
correctness play in just this rip this
investigation being dug down I mean
obviously I wasn't around in Greater
Manchester at the time but when you read
this and you realise that pretty much
every offender that they were dealing
with was from a British Pakistani or
British say some background well yes the
perception will be that something like
prison correctness or some issue around
their ethnicity played a part I've
always said that if necessity is an
issue it's not the issue the issue is
that victims women and girls have simply
been allowed to suffer without being
listened to and being left behind that's
the issue
but the ethnicity of the perpetrators
you cannot get away from the
disproportionately they have been
involved in this type this model of
sexual abuse but let's make this very
clear today the ONS announced that there
are three million people in this country
who've been sexually abused as a
children yeah one in 20 the bigger
issues is about how we deal with this
going forward