The Mancunian Way: Where's the accountability?

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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.

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