A damning new report found girls were ‘at the mercy’ of paedophile grooming gangs, as it identified 96 men who still pose a potential risk to children.

The 173-page report into Operation Span – Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) much-criticised investigation into the grooming allegations in Rochdale – found children were at risk of grooming gangs for years due to an ‘inadequate’ response by police and council bosses.

Findings came as a result of a six-year investigation commissioned by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, which reviewed the cases of 111 children on police files from 2004 to 2013.

The report found evidence 74 of those children were being sexually exploited and in 48 of the cases there were ‘serious failures’ to protect them.

It also detailed numerous failed investigations by police as well as an apparent indifference by the local authorities to the plight of many children – mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, who were all identified as potential victims of abuse by Asian men.

Steve Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, described its findings as ‘shocking, stark and shameful’.

He said: “One of the primary responsibilities of the police is to protect the vulnerable from the cruel and predatory, and in this regard, we failed you.”

He said lessons had been ‘well and truly learned’ and were ‘solidly baked’ into the systems used by police and partner agencies to implement child safeguarding today.

He continued: “I would never stand here and complacently assert that we are perfect, we are certainly not, and regrettably mistakes could well similarly be made into the future. 

“But what I am saying is that our current practices and working arrangements have altered dramatically and are now reflective of the highest national standards.”

He also added that officers were now ‘better trained’ in child safeguarding.

The reports states there was also ‘compelling evidence’ of widespread sexual abuse of youngsters living in Rochadale from 2004 onwards.

In 2007, Sara Rowbotham, a crisis team leader, alerted GMP and Rochdale Council to the involvement of an organised crime group. Ms Rowbotham would go on to become the whistleblower in the scandal.

GMP identified the ringleaders of the gang but due to the children being too frightened to assist them, they did not proceed to investigate any further.

The report said this was a ‘serious failure’ to protect the children because it ignored the coercion and control the groomers had over the victims and their families.

It found a police investigation into two takeaways in the area, involving three adult male suspects, was aborted early because police bosses failed to resource it and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deemed the main child victim an unreliable witness.

Following the launch of a specialist team in Rochdale in 2010, a child told a social worker of wide-scale abuse of children by up to 60 men.

A detective inspector requested for more staff to help investigate but it was denied by police bosses, according to the report.

“Once more children were left at the mercy of their abusers because of an inadequate response by GMP and children’s social care to the serious exploitation of vulnerable children,” the report said.

But it wasn’t until December, more than two years after police were told of the abuse centred around the two takeaway restaurants, that the force finally acted and launched Operation Span. 

The operation led to the conviction of nine men in 2012 in a high-profile court case, where it was heard that girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs before being gang raped in rooms above the takeaways.

Greater Manchester Police hailed it as a ‘fantastic result of British justice’ at the time.

However, the report found the police operation had failed to address numerous other crimes and ignored children’s allegations, which let their abusers off the hook.

The report concludes, the problem was not given ‘sufficient priority’ despite there being an awareness by police and children’s social care bosses of the scale of abuse involved.

Malcolm Newsam CBE, a childcare expert who co-authored the report along with Gary Ridgeway, said: “Successive police operations were launched, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation within the area.

“Consequently, children were left at risk and many of their abusers to this day have not been apprehended.”

The report found Ms Rowbotham and Maggie Oliver, a former GMP detective who resigned from the force in disgust, were ’lone voices’ who had flagged clear evidence of ‘prolific serial rape of countless children in Rochdale’.

Ms Oliver has gone on to found The Maggie Oliver Foundation, a charity supporting adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Speaking at a press conference about the report, Ms Oliver disagreed with the chief constable’s claim that the situation had improved. She said she would ‘say categorically’ that ‘the failures that happened then are still happening now’.

“We have more communication, for sure, but we do not have a system that supports victims, that listens to their voices, and when they do challenge the system, unfortunately, the organisation closes ranks,” she added.

Meanwhile, Mr Burnham praised both Ms Rowbotham and Ms Oliver for their ‘determination and courage’ in coming forward.

He said: “It is only by facing up fully and unflinchingly to what happened in all of its horrifying detail, we can be sure of bringing about the whole system culture change that is necessary on this critically important issue.”

Rochdale Council leader Neil Emmott said the council ‘are deeply sorry’ that Rochdale Council during the period 2004 to 2013 ‘did not recognise nor acknowledge the very serious failures that affected the lives of children in our borough and failed to take the necessary action’.

Going forward he said: “We will be ever vigilant in our efforts to ensure these awful failures don’t happen again and that children will be protected.”

Deputy Mayor for Police, Crime, Fire and Criminal Justice, Kate Green, said: “These reviews have been crucial for giving us a full and objective picture of non-recent child sexual exploitation in various parts of Greater Manchester.

“While this would have been difficult reading for GMP and Rochdale Council, I know they have taken it very seriously. I also know that attitudes and safeguarding practice have moved on.”