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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
by BETH ABBIT - Wed June 22, 2022
Hello,
It's another hot day in Greater Manchester and temperatures are set to soar to 28C tomorrow. More strike action is planned by the RMT - something many in our region have supported, despite the disruption it causes.
We'll be discussing that, as well as Maggie Oliver's assessment of the latest report into child sexual exploitation in today's newsletter.
'Where is the accountability?'
Rape and child abuse is ‘almost becoming decriminalised’ due to low prosecution rates, whistleblower and former detective Maggie Oliver says.
Maggie resigned from Greater Manchester Police, claiming the force had failed the victims of the Rochdale sex grooming scandal. She has been instrumental in Andy Burnham’s decision to launch an assurance review looking into failures in how police and social services protected vulnerable girls.
Maggie has now spoken to local democracy reporter Charlotte Green about the horrific case of 12-year-old Sophie, who was raped by several different men after trying to report a sexual assault at Oldham Police Station, back in 2006. The child was told to come back with an adult when she wasn’t drunk, but minutes later, she was in the hands of predators and was repeatedly raped throughout the night.
Maggie - who has supported Sophie through her Maggie Oliver Foundation - was with her when she read the review chapter about her case. “She fell apart when she read that for 15 years GMP had known the identities of another two of her rapists and yet that was the very first time she found that out,” she said.
Only two men were ever arrested for the crimes against Sophie. The one man to be jailed for his crime, Shakil Chowdhury, named two other men involved in the rapes as part of his mitigation. GMP were told their names, but did not follow them up at the time. One of the men was later convicted of attempting to murder his wife.
Maggie says: “Sophie is a case that we know, Sophie is by no means a unique case. This is going on all the time and it’s very rare that a victim is heard in this way. It’s buried by these organisations.
“It’s shocking that so many of the things that came out in the report should have been known right from day one. Basic investigative paths should have been followed from the start but they were not followed. There have been errors and failures all the way through. It shouldn’t have taken 15 years for that to be acknowledged. Delays can lead to further abuse.”
Maggie says information known by the police was hidden from Sophie, and internal GMP investigations which had found no failures were ‘not worth the paper they’re written on’.
“Where is the accountability? I really think trust in these organisations is broken," she says. "Rape and child abuse is almost becoming decriminalised because prosecutions are so low that even the figures now of reported rape, less than two per cent reach court. That’s without all those, like Sophie’s, which have not been recorded.”
The review published this week found vulnerable children were being exploited and let down by institutions which tried and failed to protect them during 2005 and 2006 and between 2011 to 2014.
GMP Chief Constable, Stephen Watson, and leader of Oldham council Amanda Chadderton issued public apologies on Monday for how Sophie was treated. The force has launched Operation Sherwood as the ‘next leg’ in a drive to tackle sexual exploitation in Oldham and bring abusers before the courts.
Weather, etc.
- Thursday: Sunny changing to cloudy in the afternoon. 28C.
- Pollen count: Very high.
- Roads closed: Anson Road, Manchester, in both directions for roadworks during off-peak periods between Oxford Place and Dickenson Road until June 22. Delph New Road, Dobcross, in both directions for roadworks between Wall Hill Road and Oldham Road until August 15. Eccles New Road westbound closed for gas main work from Stott Lane to Gilda Brook Road until June 28.
- Disruption expected to most train operating companies between June 21 and 26 due to industrial action.
- Today's Manc trivia question: Who was Dangermouse's bespectacled sidekick?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
Shapps is MIA
Andy Burnham says the government has the power to ‘fix’ things before further RMT rail strikes. The Greater Manchester mayor says it's 'entirely right' for workers to fight for their income.
“All we need is an agreement and Government has everything in their ability to fix this, but they are not," he said. “It is almost as if they want the controversy of these strikes to take place. Everybody should turn their anger and criticism towards the people who can fix this and avoid these strikes - and that is Government."
Labour MPs have also waded in with their thoughts on the strike action - which is due to continue tomorrow. Deputy Labour leader and Ashton MP Angela Rayner said workers have been left with no choice. “No one takes strike action lightly,” she tweeted. “I will always defend their absolute right to do so for fairness at work. The PM needs to do his own job. His government caused this. Now they must solve it."
Blackley and Broughton MP Graham Stringer said rail workers have ‘a completely justified case’. “The government are behaving completely irresponsibly. They are in charge of much of the railway network and are refusing to get involved in the negotiations. Any worker has the right to try and protect their living standards.”
Wythenshawe and Sale East MP Mike Kane said: “Grant Shapps is currently Missing in Action. It's really disruptive to the country and it's on the government to sort it out." While Bolton MP Yasmin Qureshi said: "Nobody chooses to go on strike for the hell out it. You do not get paid by your employer for going on strike.”
Here in Manchester, many commuters were supportive of the action - which is ongoing due to a row over pay and redundancies. Joe White, 18, was on the picket line, despite not being an RMT member. He told reporter Ethan Davies he is doing his A Levels but ‘doesn’t care’ about the disruption. “I am going to college, but I have to empathise with people. You have to fight. Yes, it’s disruptive but it is how we can be listened to.”
Crikey Chief!
The world's greatest secret agent has finally been recognised as such - albeit with a rather diminutive blue plaque.
As we all know, Dangermouse is a Chorlton export having been invented and brought to life in the suburb at Cosgrove Hall. But his home was always London.
Now a blue plaque has appeared on the postbox where he lived and worked with sidekick Penfold - Baker Street, London, W1.
Mindless
The pagoda at Manchester’s Chinatown has been vandalised with four imported Chinese statues stolen.
Coun Pat Karney described the early hours crime as ‘mindless vandalism on one of the most iconic structures in Manchester’. “That arch is much-loved not just by the Chinese community, but the whole city as well,” he said.
The city council is working with police to investigate. The pagoda is closed while repairs take place.
Pocket park
The new Derek Jarman Pocket Park opens outside Manchester Art Gallery today. The urban garden space has been created in partnership with Pride in Ageing - LGBT Foundation's programme for older people.
It has been inspired by the work of artist, filmmaker, activist, and gardener Derek Jarman and to complement the exhibition Protest! The garden design and planting scheme references Jarman’s own Prospect Cottage, where he spent the last few years of his life working and developing his iconic garden.
Manchester headlines
Charles and Henry: Manchester has been chosen as the new headquarters of Rolls-Royce's mini nuclear power station division. Rolls-Royce SMR will be based at 11 York Street and will operate alongside its existing locations in Warrington and Derby. Chief executive Tom Samson said: "Rolls-Royce SMR is coming back to Manchester, where Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met in 1904. "We’re on target to recruit 850 people to work on this incredibly exciting project by the end of this year."
Mine’s a pint: Warehouse Project and Parklife boss Sacha Lord is launching a city-wide happy hour at venues across Manchester this summer. It’s hoped the ‘Hospitality Hour’ will help to fill venues across the region’s ten boroughs by offering an hour of free drinks. The first Hospitality Hour is set to take place at the Adelphi Lads Club, in Salford, this Sunday between 5pm and 6pm. “This is all about getting together and thanking the people of Greater Manchester for their support over the past two and a half years,” Sacha said.
Objectified: Manchester-based fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for 'objectifying women'. Their website listing featured an image of a topless woman with her arms crossed over her chest wearing the jeans with the front unzipped showing the top of her underwear. A second photo showed the same model wearing the jeans zipped up, but the photo had cut off her head and shoulders. In a ruling published today, the ASA said a complainant believed the ad sexually objectified women and challenged whether it was offensive and irresponsible. The ASA upheld the complaint, saying the adverts were likely to cause 'serious offence'. The company has been told to ensure future ads 'were prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society and that they did not cause serious or widespread offence by objectifying women'.
Sharing a joke
This image from the archives shows seven-year-old Terrance Coltan and Deidre Cairns, also seven, looking particularly cheeky while walking with St Oswalds during Whit Monday walks in Collyhurst, on June 3, 1963.
Worth a read
Can you fit five days work into four? Staff at AKA Case Management hope so. They are currently being paid 100 per cent of their salary but for 80 per cent of the hours they would usually work as part of a pilot scheme.
Director Andrew Rose usually works from his home office in New Mills but instead spent his Monday in Lyme Park with his children. “Wellbeing has always been something really important to us,” he says.
Saffron Otter has written about the trial here.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me, the next edition of the Mancunian Way will be with you around the same time tomorrow. If you have any stories you would like us to feature or look into, please contact me at beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk
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The answer to today’s trivia question, who was Dangermouse's bespectacled sidekick, is Penfold.
