A call to ban the Rochdale grooming gang ignored a year ago, alleges report

A YEAR ago there was a call to ban the Rochdale grooming gang, unfortunately it went unheeded, reported The Sun.

The revelation comes after abuser Abdul Rauf, 51 was pictured in the town six years after he was due to be removed from the country.

UK home secretary Priti Patel wrote to Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham in last July seeking assurances that officials and police were making 'the best use of all legislative powers available to them'.

According to reports, that should have ensured victims would not be able to run into members of the gang while they fight deportation.

But Greater Manchester Police have not requested the order, claiming they need new evidence the men are dangerous.

The home secretary suggested officials use Sexual Harm Prevention Orders to curb the freedoms of the nine members of the gang as licence conditions had expired.

Under the orders, the men could be banned from their old haunts or stopped from meeting children under a certain age in any capacity.

According to The Sun report, Patel never got a response about using the orders. But sources close to Burnham said that they replied to the letter and responded to all their points.

“The Mayor and I have repeatedly asked the home secretary to intervene and do the right thing by these victims. All we have had are excuses but no action," Baroness Bev Hughes, deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, told The Sun.