Leader of Oldham Council, Councillor Arooj Shah has welcomed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of a national child sexual exploitation inquiry.
Yesterday, a gang of seven rapists, including two from Oldham, who groomed vulnerable girls in Rochdale were convicted at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court of a total of 50 offences that occurred between 2001 and 2006.
These were the latest convictions as part of Operation Lytton – an investigation by the specialist Major Investigations Team into non-recent CSE in Rochdale which has been supported by the multi-agency complex safeguarding team, Sunrise, alongside Rochdale Borough Council.
The Prime Minster said this week that he had read every single word of an independent report into CSE by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for the investigation.
The government has for months held off launching a statutory probe, saying its focus was on implementing the outstanding recommendations that were already made in a seven year national inquiry by Professor Alexia Jay which found institutional failing and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.
Councillor Arooj Shah said: "I welcome the Prime Minister's decision to launch a full national statutory inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE). It is right and proper to respect the findings from Baroness Casey as part of her National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
"We met with Baroness Casey during the review period to put forward the concerns of local survivors and those who have been affected. We used this opportunity to stress the importance of an inquiry which compelled witnesses and had statutory powers, and the need for accountability for professionals who were complicit in the abuse.
"We have not shied away from the issue of CSE in Oldham; we are and will continue to confront the issue without prejudice. We know that child abuse is perpetrated by people of all races and religions, and is inflicted on people of all races and religions.
"As I have always said, that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask questions about any drivers of this very specific type of offending. We need to do more to understand why this particular pattern of abuse is more prevalent among some groups of men. To say so is not racist. It is what we must confront if there is to be justice.
"Nobody I have spoken to, from any community, wants to see anything other than for these men to be punished to the full extent of the law. Just in the past week, seven men have been convicted of these offences. I hope when they lock these disgusting men up, they throw away the key.
"This is why we are already in the process of commissioning Tom Crowther KC to chair a local inquiry into CSE. Our priority now is to work with the home office to understand how our local inquiry is aligned with the national inquiry to get the answers that survivors and those affected so desperately want and deserve."
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