Public inquiry into historic child sex exploitation demanded again.
A full public inquiry is the only solution to Oldham Council and GMP’s failure to take action after previous investigations into historic child sex exploitation in the borough, say Oldham Liberal Democrats
They will support a motion calling for a full public inquiry at next week’s Full Council meeting.
Calls for a full public inquiry have been consistently blocked by the ruling Labour Group since the publication of the review into historic handling of abuse, written by Malcom Newsam and Gary Ridgway in 2022. Oldham Labour lost overall control of the council in May’s local elections but have narrowly held on to power with the support of some ‘Independent’ councillors.
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “The review released two years ago revealed the most unimaginable crimes and the suffering of children. Victims and their families deserve proper justice. We haven’t had that from the reports we’ve seen so far which have been limited in scope.
“Two years later, despite promises and warm words from those in power at the council and in the police, no direct action has been taken against those who failed children. We understand that some of those people are still in post at the council, in the police and within our social services.”
With Oldham Council now in no overall control and with the Labour Party without a majority in the council chamber, opposition parties will try again to win a vote calling for the full public inquiry that the Labour leadership has so far blocked.
Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who will second the motion on Wednesday 10th July, said, “The response of the council has been nowhere near good enough so far. Despite repeated questioning, they have failed to take action, repeatedly. We now have an opportunity to force the administration to do the right thing for survivors of abuse and get the full public inquiry they deserve.”
Motion calling for a public inquiry in full:
PROPOSED: Councillor Lewis Quigg
SECONDED: Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani
People in positions of power at both Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC) and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have yet to be held to account for their failure to protect our children from child sexual exploitation (CSE).
People of all communities in Oldham have as result of delay, obstruction and passage of time lost trust in OMBC and GMP.
As recently as January 2024, the highly respected Maggie Oliver referenced the Oldham Assurance Review and told its authors Malcom Newsam & Gary Ridgway that in Oldham they had been prevented from getting to the truth. This is after it emerged that survivors had been prevented from giving testimony to the Review Team.
The findings of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s Assurance Review neither provided assurance nor sufficiently reviewed what had taken place. Despite claiming there was no cover up, and that lessons had been learned.
This Council notes:
Survivors deserve to see the full powers of law used to bring the criminals of these depraved acts to justice, no matter their rank politically, in the community, at OMBC or GMP.
OMBC, and as such its members herein, have a duty to protect children and vulnerable people of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and beyond. The reality is, until we get to the root of the issue, we cannot move forward as we are unable to ensure that failings highlighted in the review are not continuing.
There is a significant groundswell of opinion that an independent public inquiry is needed.
This Council resolves:
– To write to the Home Secretary of His Majesty’s Government to demand that a public inquiry into historic and current CSE within the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council area. That any such investigation will investigate the failure of OMBC, GMP and all associated bodies or groups in Oldham which failed to protect our children.
This Council further resolves that:
– If the Home Secretary refuses a public inquiry that OMBC approves the commissioning and implementation of a non-statutory independent inquiry historic and current CSE within the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council area. That any such investigation will investigate the failure of OMBC, GMP and all associated bodies or groups in Oldham which failed to protect our children and to instruct OMBC officers to commission such an inquiry immediately.