Greater Manchester Police investigating 1,000 grooming gang suspects, watchdog says

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A police force that previously had to apologise for failing vulnerable victims of child grooming gangs is now investigating more than 1,000 suspects, a watchdog has said.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which in 2022 issued an unequivocal apology to victims it had let down, has made “significant improvements” in how it investigates grooming gangs and child sexual abuse, according to a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

Inspectors found the force now has 300 officers working on 59 live investigations into “multi-victim, multi-offender” child sexual exploitation involving 714 victims and 1,099 suspects.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said the report shows the response to grooming gangs in the city is now “far stronger”, adding: “Never again will any child here be labelled or dismissed when they come forward to report concerns.”

It comes after the government last month announced a national inquiry into grooming gangs, after a damning rapid review found leaders had “failed in our duty” to properly understand this kind of group offending.

The review, led by Baroness Louise Casey, also found a significant over-representation of Asian men who are suspects in grooming gangs in Greater Manchester, adding though authorities are in “denial” more needs to be done to understand why this is the case.

Michelle Skeer, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, said: “It is clear that the force has, for many years, been trying to provide a better service to those who have or may have experienced sexual exploitation.

“But for some, trust and confidence in the police had been lost, and the force would not be able to rectify their experiences.

“It is vital that improvements are led by victims’ experiences, and if they do come forward, they are supported, protected and taken seriously.”

The 76-page HMICFRS report found current Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson and other senior officers make sure all ranks understand child protection is a priority, it said, with he or deputy chief constables having personally spoken to every supervisor in the force about it.

The report states: “Officers told us that, due to a cultural shift in Greater Manchester Police, investigating child sexual exploitation is now considered ‘everyone’s business’.”

Grooming gangs also “feature heavily” in chief officer meetings, with performance monitored closely, the report said.

GMP is the only force in the country to set up a dedicated team to investigate grooming gangs, which it did in 2021, now called the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team (CSE MIT), with around 100 staff and a ring-fenced budget.

The force also approaches child sexual exploitation as it does serious and organised crime gangs, using specialist tactics.

The force has also recorded demographic data, such as the age, sex and ethnicity of potential victims and suspects and uses “intelligence products” to produce “problem profiles” to detail emerging threats and risks.

However inspectors, who carried out their review in October last year, also said the force is aware of “training gaps” in some investigation teams and that some victims had been let down in the way their case was handled.

The report also hit out at issues with data sharing, with local councils sometimes not willing to provide detectives with information, leading to “significant delays in investigations” into grooming gangs.

In some cases intelligence provided by Manchester City Council took months to arrive and “was so heavily redacted that some pages contained only a few words,” the report said.

The force, local authority and CPS have now agreed to a “more efficient and effective” process to allow investigators to review unredacted documents.

To date, the CSE MIT and the earlier grooming gang investigations have resulted in 42 convictions and more than 430 years imprisonment for offenders. Investigations are ongoing and several more trials are scheduled.

The report adds: “The force fully accepts that it made mistakes in the past.

“It has taken positive and effective steps to learn from these mistakes and improve how it investigates recent and non-recent child sexual exploitation.”

Responding to the report, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “I am confident in my view that the Greater Manchester system is in a demonstrably different and far stronger place today than it was when the failings happened.

“The effect of the assurance review I commissioned has been to usher in widespread culture change across all GM bodies. Never again will any child here be labelled or dismissed when they come forward to report concerns.”

Mr Burnham said he felt “vindicated” by the Government’s decision to launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs following Baroness Casey’s review.

“Because of the inevitable limitations of a local review like this, I was an early supporter of a national inquiry to bring accountability of decision-makers and Baroness Casey herself has said that there would not be a national inquiry were it not for the Greater Manchester review,” he said.

“We can feel vindicated by that. Now the national inquiry is being put in place, we must allow victims the space and the right climate to have their voices heard, allow the actual truth to be established and accountability delivered.”