Instead, her cry for help was ignored and she turned away because she was “drunk.” A few minutes later he was found in the hands of miserable sexual predators. It was the beginning of a night of torture in which she was repeatedly raped by men, most of whom have never been caught. READ MORE: Read more related articles A review of allegations of sexual exploitation in Oldham, published today, found that authorities failed to properly investigate the crimes against the young girl in 2006, known only as “Sophie”. The report, by experts Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgway, also condemns the social services response to Sophie’s plight, with council staff accusing her of being “prone to fantasy” and “putting herself in danger”. . One colleague described Sophie as “in a good mood” on a visit, despite the fact that she “paradoxically” recorded that she had also drunk bleach before their meeting. The Greater Manchester Police Department (GMP) was informed of the names of two of its attackers, but failed to charge any of them with a crime. One of these men will later be jailed for attempting to kill his wife. When Sophie complained to the council as an adult about the handling of her case, police described her as “adversarial” and told her it had been a long time since she had been examined. The GMP also denied any wrongdoing and refused to admit the failures of Sophie and her family, despite launching its own investigation which found missing forensic evidence and serious weaknesses in the original investigation. The report on the CSE in Oldham has been repeatedly delayed (Image: Gary Oakley / Manchester Evening News) These combined failures and subsequent denials mean that she has spent the last 15 years in an empty battle fighting with the institutions that are supposed to protect her in order to reach the truth. Both authorities have now been summoned to formally apologize to Sophie. Sophie was first referred to childcare in March 2006 when she was 12, after she told her school that a family member had beaten her – which they denied. She consistently told social workers that she wanted to be cared for, but instead hired an associate to support her parents and work with her. Sophie admitted to this partner that “she was talking to older men on the Internet”. However, records show that the worker stated that “Sophie seems to be trying to gain attention and shock others with what she says”. In June, she informed her partner that she wanted to take the contraceptive pill and wanted to meet a 19-year-old man with whom she was talking online. Sophie said she had already met him in a case in the parking lot of a Sainsbury’s store. While the communicator discussed the dangers of this with Sophie, they said: “She seems to like saying things to me to impress or shock me. “It’s very difficult to understand when Sophie is telling the truth or when she is making up stories.” That same month he was referred by the director of the Brook Counseling Center to the Oldham council’s child care department. They were worried that Sophie had gone to the clinic three times last week and had been sexually active “since she was 12”. Read more related articles Read more related articles Sophie insisted that her mother should not be involved, but told the clinic that she was in a relationship with a man she had met on the Internet, who seemed “older than his apparent years”. She had a negative pregnancy test and asked to be given a contraceptive pill. After receiving this information from the clinic, the social worker on duty said that they would contact the police, but there is no file to inform the police about the referral. “The same day, a communications officer reported that Sophie was in a good mood, but strangely enough, she also reported that Sophie had swallowed a small amount of bleach that morning,” the reviewer said. The case was assigned to a social worker who agreed to see Sophie at the clinic the next time she attends. However, Sophie canceled her visit to the clinic. When she contacted the contact person, she was explained that she was “prone to fantasy”. The social worker wrote to an employee of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) about the Brooke Clinic’s concerns, but concluded: “Given your involvement, I propose to close the case myself, I have not contacted Sophie or her parents out of respect. of this reference “. At this point no further action was taken by the social welfare of the children. The CAHMS social worker, who was evaluating Sophie for a suspected diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, confirmed that she would work with Sophie and continue with the school’s six-month review meetings. But the review team found that this was an “inadequate” response from child social care. Campaigns push for disclosure of report details (Image: Gary Oakley / Manchester Evening News) “Given the serious protection concerns raised by the Brooke Clinic, child welfare should have called for a strategy discussion in the context of child protection proceedings at this time,” they said. Newsam and Ridgway point to a child protection guide that states that a child under the age of 13 is not “legally competent” to consent to sexual activity. It also says that cases involving children under the age of 13 should always be discussed with an appointed child protection officer and that a strategy discussion involving social care, policies and stakeholders should be held. However, none of these requirements were met in Sophie’s case. Sophie was out of school regularly at the time and disappeared in October 2006. When she returned the next day, she revealed that she had been subjected to a series of brutal rapes. The martyrdom began when he drank with friends at the Oldham Parish church where he was indecently attacked by an Asian, known only as Ali. She went to the Oldham police station to report the attack, but was later told to “watch again with an adult when she was not drunk”. “Given her age and vulnerability, this is very worrying and has caused a number of events that have led to her being severely abused in many cases by different men,” the review said. While she was at the police station, she was nodded by two men who asked her if she wanted to get in their car and “relax”. Sophie said at the time that she was “afraid to go home”, so she went with the men. This was just outside the front door of the police station which was covered by a CCTV camera. One of the men had gone to the police station to file his driver’s license at the office. They then waited in the car for ten minutes for a third man, who was inside the police station. Read more related articles Read more related articles While in the car with the men, Sophie was raped and sexually assaulted by unknown assailants. She was then taken to a gas station – which she later identified – where one of her attackers pulled money from a cash register. At around 10:30 pm that night, Sophie was left near Werneth Park, where she asked for instructions from a man – Sarwar Ali. He said he would help her and invited her to his house. But in fact when he came in, instead of helping her in her troubles, Ali raped her as well. After giving her money to pay for the bus ticket, Sophie was allowed to leave, disoriented and upset. Near this address, a man in a green car that had passed in front stopped him and told him that he would help her. In her increased vulnerability, Sophie trusted the man, named Shakil Chowdhury. But once again his words were empty promises designed to lure Sophie into the hands of even more abusers and allow him to take advantage of her. Instead of taking her home, Chaudy took her to another house in Attack Close, where she and four other men raped Sophie for several hours. Just the next day one of the men took her back home. Although Sophie reported all the attacks to the police, only two arrests were made. “Our judgment is that there have been very serious failures in the Sophie crime investigation,” said Oldham. The initial response of the police was appropriate, as they found out. Sophie was spotted by a specially trained officer and led to her whereabouts, which led to the identification of Ali and Chowdhury. He underwent a medical examination and was quickly interviewed the next day on video. However, the sexual assault in the churchyard and the rape of Sophie by the men she met at the police station were never recorded as crimes. “We have not been able to prove that significant lines of inquiry were followed to locate and apprehend these offenders,” the review said. Newsam and Ridgway believe that GMP focused on prosecuting Ali and Chowdhury, without “sufficient attention” to locating the other offenders. This is criticized in their review as a “serious failure” to follow national crime reporting standards and conduct a thorough investigation. Sophie tried to tell police what had happened to her (Image: Gary Oakley / Manchester Evening News) The CCTV footage outside the police station should have been a critical piece of evidence against the men who abducted her after she complained of harassment. Likewise, the CCTV video from the gas station should have been examined, but the audit team was unable to find any record of this being done or that this line of inquiry was followed by GMP. Some items recovered from the house in Attock Close underwent a forensic examination, including a “large number of condoms”, but this …
