Police investigating exploitation of young girls arrest 11 in Manchester

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/28/police-exploitation-young-girls-arrest-manchester

Version 0 of 1.

Police have arrested 11 people in south Manchester as part of a crackdown on exploitation of young girls.

The suspected abusers, aged between 19 and 38, were arrested for alleged offences including sexual activity with a child, attempted indecent assault, inciting child prostitution, abduction and rape. The arrests took place under Operation Heliodor, part of Project Phoenix, a campaign tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE) across Greater Manchester.

“Tackling child sexual exploitation and those responsible for such heinous crimes is an absolute priority for us,” said DI Debbie Oakes of the Greater Manchester police (GMP) Protect team. “I want to assure our communities that combatting CSE is a force priority for GMP and we would encourage anyone who is a victim of this kind of abuse to come to either us, a family member or the charities and support agencies who are out there and help us bring the offenders to justice.”

Oakes said she expected more warrants and arrests as the force continued its investigation. The Protect team is made up of police, children’s services, health services and Barnardo’s and covers the Salford and Manchester area.

Lynn Perry, regional director for Barnardo’s in the west, said: “We are pleased to be at the heart of an inter-agency partnership in Greater Manchester tackling child sexual exploitation; supporting and enabling young people to speak out and providing child victims of sexual exploitation with appropriate, long-term support.”

The arrests came after a week of action to help prevent child sexual exploitation and raise awareness of the issue in Greater Manchester and the launch of a campaign called It’s Not Okay.

The campaign seeks to protect children at risk by increasing understanding of child sexual exploitation and how to spot the warning signs of abuse. In launching the campaign, the assistant chief constable Dawn Copley acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the past.

“Historically mistakes have been made; however, we are more determined than ever to get it right,” she said. “It is crucial that the children of Greater Manchester understand what child sexual exploitation is, to recognise when this happening to them, and that it is not OK. We want children to know that they will be believed and that we will do everything in our power to protect and help them.”

Police forces, including Greater Manchester police, have been criticised for ignoring claims of widespread abuse for years. Earlier this month, it was claimed that child sex grooming gangs in Greater Manchester had avoided prosecution because of a failure by the police force to pursue claims against them. GMP was accused by serving and former detectives of attempting to cover up failings to tackle gangs of Asian men who were abusing young girls.