A woman who was subjected to a series of horrific rapes aged just 12 is calling for her case to be investigated by a different police force as she holds 'no trust' in Greater Manchester Police.
In June, a damning review into child sexual exploitation in Oldham was published which found that vulnerable girls had been failed despite efforts to protect them.
In one detailed case the authors concluded that authorities failed to properly investigate the crimes against a young girl in 2006 and she was systematically failed.
She fell into the hands of predators after trying to report a sexual assault at Oldham police station, which led to a further 24 hours of torment in which she was raped repeatedly by different men in three separate attacks.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was told the names of two of her attackers but failed to charge either of them with a crime. One of these men would later be jailed for the attempted murder of his wife.
The report identifies her only as ‘Sophie’. However she has partially lifted her life-long anonymity in order to speak out under her real name, Sam.
Sam says that the serious failings identified by the review authors, Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgway in how GMP handled her case means the institution is not fit for purpose to bring her abusers to justice.
GMP says that ‘routine external reviews’ of the progress of the investigation into her case will be conducted, but has ruled out handing it to another force over ‘practical difficulties’.
The report by Newsam and Ridgway found that only two men who had assaulted Sam were ever arrested by the force and vital evidence was lost or destroyed, including CCTV, a key video interview, exhibits from the house were she was raped, and the prosecution file.
In the years prior to the review publication, GMP consistently denied any wrongdoing and refused to admit failures to Sam and her family, despite launching its own probe that identified missed forensic evidence and serious weaknesses in the original investigation.
The force has since launched Operation Sherwood, a dedicated investigation tasked with bringing historic perpetrators of abuse and sexual exploitation in Oldham to justice.
The Chief Constable Stephen Watson has also met with Sam to say sorry for the force’s failings, and publicly apologised when the review was published.
However Sam says that in the two months since Operation Sherwood was announced, none of the assailants who attacked her when she was 12 have been arrested.
“Why have none of those officers done anything? It’s been months since that review came out and there’s been nothing whatsoever,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“It’s like it’s not important to them to catch a paedophile. It’s not something that’s a priority, it never has been.”
Sam’s horrific night of abuse began initially in the grounds of Oldham Parish Church where she was indecently assaulted by an unknown Asian man.
She went to Oldham police station to report the attack, but was then told by staff to ‘re-attend with an adult when she was not drunk’.
Men leaving the police station encouraged her into their car, who then assaulted and raped her. They dropped her on a street, where another man – Sarwar Ali – offered help and invited her into his house. But in fact when she entered, instead of assisting her in her plight, Ali also raped her.
After being allowed to leave, a different man driving past told her he would help and she hoped he could get her home. Instead the man, Shakil Chowdhury, drove her to another house on Attock Close where he and four other men raped Sophie over several hours. It was not until the next day that she was taken by one of the men back home.
In an open letter to the council in 2019, Sam had stated that residents of Attock Close had ‘repeatedly’ told the authority about a ‘large-scale grooming operation in which taxis would amass on the street every Wednesday night and children would be taken to [the address] in a conveyor belt fashion’.
Sexual DNA from other men, and three other women, was also identified at the house following the assaults on Sam. Two of the women the DNA belonged to told police they had had sex with Chowdhury at the address when they were 16.
“We believe this forensic evidence does go some way to support Sophie’s later assertion that [the address] was a place where young women were sexually exploited by Asian males,” the review team stated.
Sam added: “The reason I wanted another force to investigate my case is because I know there was more to it at that house, I know another victim who was abused at that address. The house was used as a brothel for kids.
“It’s been my fight for ten years to prove it was not just a one-off isolated incident. They didn’t want more digging.
“I want an independent inquiry, and I don’t have any trust in GMP investigating my case. It’s a continuous cover up. “
Only Chowdhury has been jailed for the crimes against her. In May 2007 he was found guilty in court and sentenced to six years in prison.
Ali was arrested and remanded to prison, but released following a bail application and then absconded. He is still at large.
The review, published earlier this summer, found there were ‘very serious failings’ in the investigation of the crimes reported by Sam – known as Sophie in the report.
In their findings, the review’s authors were scathing of the response of both GMP and local social services in how they treated her – and let her abusers walk free. The team recommended they ‘publicly acknowledge the serious failures and apologise’.
“We believe that the interventions of both the council and Greater Manchester Police fell far short of what was required to protect Sophie at the time, and these failures have been compounded by the denials that have subsequently been issued to Sophie and feed a view that both agencies are more concerned about covering up their failures than acknowledging the harm had been done to a vulnerable young person,” the report stated.
In a statement to the LDRS, Greater Manchester Police said: “The Chief Constable has both met with and written to Sophie to outline the parameters of the review into her case and the senior oversight to ensure this is done to a high standard.
“Operation Hydrant will also be requested to complete routine external reviews of the progress of the investigation as an additional safeguard. Such external reviews are completely independent and are conducted by senior and experienced investigators.”
Operation Hydrant is a hub that nationally delivers the policing response and oversight to non-recent child sexual abuse investigations. However it does not carry out individual investigations.
“Following the meeting between Sophie and the Chief Constable, Sophie was provided with a direct contact within the Operation Sherwood team who has been in touch with Sophie to answer queries she had around the investigation,” the GMP spokesperson added.
“Operation Sherwood was established in June 2022 comprising a dedicated team of police officers and support staff whose remit it is to investigate non-recent cases of child sexual exploitation featuring within the Independent Review Team’s report in Oldham.
“Op Sherwood is in a review and recruitment stage whereby officers are gathering all the information from previous investigations to understand what evidential opportunities exist.
“The Op Sherwood team are initially reviewing the ten cases which were included in the review commissioned by the Mayor’s Office into safeguarding practices in Oldham.
“However, they will also explore any further lines of enquiry which result from their initial investigations, leaving no stone unturned.
“Should any further victims, or indeed suspects, be identified, the team will endeavour to explore these leads thoroughly, and pursue any potential criminal aspects which previously may not been adequately investigated.”