A history of trauma, a history of failure

The intervention from Elon Musk this week has reignited discussion about grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation in the UK. Some of the claims made have sparked allegations that the media and politicians have been part of a cover-up, t hat reporting has been limited and that institutions and politicians have failed to respond to the issue. In this piece Jo Timan details the history of the grooming gang scandal in Greater Manchester and how the Manchester Evening News has reported on it for more than a decade.

In September 2003, a 15-year-old girl from Rochdale died from a suspected heroin overdose.

Victoria Agoglia had been placed in the care of Manchester council at the age of eight and it was later revealed that social workers knew she had been taking drugs and engaging in what they referred to at the time as ‘prostitution‘ for years. Her death led to a police investigation, Operation Augusta, aimed at finding out if there was a wider problem of child sexual exploitation in south Manchester.

Officers soon identified a network of nearly 100 Asian men linked to takeaways in and around Rusholme who were potentially involved in the abuse of scores of girls. But the operation was shut down by Greater Manchester Police shortly after in 2005 due to 'resources'.

It was around that time, 30 miles away in Yorkshire, when Labour MP Ann Cryer first raised concerns about young white girls being sexually exploited by older Asian men in Keighley. She feared that raising the issue publicly would lead to her being branded a 'racist' and embolden the British National Party - but she would later find out that it was happening in towns and cities all over the country.

Over the next decade, details of what became known as the