OLDHAM COUNCIL will demand a statutory public inquiry into ‘the scourge of child sexual exploitation both historic and current’, following an extraordinary meeting of the authority.
A judge-backed review would grant stronger powers to demand evidence from government institutions, unlike the ‘Telford-style’ local inquiry currently planned for the borough.
The decision comes three months after the home secretary rejected a previous request for a government-led review, triggering a major public backlash.
Councillors unanimously voted for the inquiry at an extraordinary meeting, which was called by Oldham’s Conservative Group last Wednesday (12).
Councillor Lewis Quigg, who proposed the motion, said: “This national public inquiry is to right an incredible wrong. It’s about time that the lid is lifted on this disaster, this national scandal of children who have been abused in some of the most evil acts.”
Councillor David Arnott added the issue had ‘hung over this borough for far too long’ and that the council had ‘failed many times to stop horrific abuses continuing for years’.
The vote came after a lengthy and jumbled debate. Multiple amendments to the motion eventually left councillors confused about what they were voting for.
After a 30-minute adjournment, a new ‘hybrid’ version of the motion blended two amendments together. These included changes in language to avoid retraumatising survivors and victims of CSE, a commitment to putting victims’ voices at the centre of any new inquiry and calling upon the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to lend their voice to the call for statutory powers.
Councillors also discussed the singling out of men with Pakistani heritage within the original motion, with Lib Dem Coun Helen Bishop arguing that it was ‘too narrow a focus’ which could put people at risk of ‘not recognising predators within other communities’.
Councillor Abdul Wahid, of the Oldham Group, added: “Justice must prevail. We as British Pakistani Muslims are not interested in statistics. Even one predator in our community is one too many. That’s why we will do what we must here and within our communities to root out these criminals, who have tarnished the good name of British Pakistani Muslims across the country.
“But let me be clear – this is not about just one community. Child sexual exploitation has affected villages, towns, and cities across the UK. Organised criminals from various backgrounds carried it out, while institutions of all ethnicities covered it up. Victims were failed by police who ignored them, social services who dismissed them, and politicians who looked away.”
One survivor, who goes by the name Amelia, said, “Finally, the different councillors and political groups are starting to take note of what we want. We’re not backing down. We’re not being quiet.
“We need a statutory inquiry so evidence and witnesses can be compelled, otherwise it’s pointless. I’ll continue to fight the home office until we get that.”
But she added that she was ‘not willing to wait’ for the review process to start.
“We want them to start soon,” Amelia said. “Girls and boys are dying without having their cases sorted out. People think this is a game but it’s not. We wake up every morning and we live and breathe this stuff. It’s our lives they’re talking about in these chambers.”
Sarah, mother to one of the abuse victims who passed away of a cardiac arrest aged just 28, added she’d been ‘unable to grieve’ while she waits for her son’s court case and the inquiry to conclude.
Sarah’s son Zak wasn’t included in the GMCA-led review because his abuse took place in 2007, but the inquiry only looked at cases between 2011 to 2014. Zak never saw his perpetrator taken to court.
Both Sarah and Amelia said the national narrative was ‘too narrow’ – framing the issue as ‘Pakistani grooming gangs’ and ‘white working-class girls’ when the reality was far more complex.
Some survivors have been supported by Lucia Rea, a former councillor who helped put the CSE issue on the council’s agenda more than six years ago and has been calling for ‘more specialist support’ for victims
Rea said, “If councillors showed more togetherness on emotive subjects like this, they would take out a lot of the toxicity that we see in the town, especially on social media.”
She added that she wanted to see ‘much more specialist support’ for child sexual abuse survivors.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
