A Not So Rotten Borough? by Les May

WHILST I think the claim that the ‘No Wrong Door’ approach, quoted by someone speaking for Rochdale Council in the original report by Nick Statham, as being ‘highly effective’, might be ready for some reappraisal after the report by Ofsted which resulted in yet another entry for the town in Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs column, I am not unsympathetic to the problems that any town will face in trying to care for recalcitrant teenagers.

It should be noted that no one at this home, or any other, has the power to detain these children against their will. When the ‘grooming scandal’ came to light there were claims that at least one parent had been unable to control his daughter’s movements and had felt it necessary to approach Social Services for assistance. It is by no means impossible that had the parent exercised the control he thought necessary to protect his daughter, Social Services would have been expected to intervene to protect her from deprivation of her liberty by her father.

As a society we demand two sometimes incompatible things; that young people up to the age of 18 be treated as ‘children’, which by definition implies that they be given special protection, and that young people always be treated as independent agents able to make rational choices. As the case highlighted demonstrates a tension exists between what we expect and what we will allow.

Until we as a society find a satisfactory way of resolving this tension we will continue to read of many more cases like this.

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Rochdale's Return to 'ROTTEN BOROUGHS'!

by BRIAN BAMFORD

DESPITE recent efforts to sanitise the news from Rochdale, this week saw the return of the town to the ROTTEN BOROUGHS' columns of PRIVATE EYE with the revelation of a local council-run home, which Ofsted has not named owing to 'safeguarding reasons', at which the inspectors found that there had been little or no control over the residents despite the fact that according to The Eye 'it only provides care and accomodation for six young people at most'.

The Eye reports: 'Following their visit, inspectors reported one girl known to be at risk of child sexual exploitation had shown staff "significicant amounts of money" she had collected while absent from the home....Two children who had gone missing for five days phoned the home and asked to be collected. A staff member told them there was no transport available. As Ofsted reported: "the children remained missing and at risk of harm until the following day".'

Last March, Ofsted classified the home as as "good", but reassessed it in January "following police involvement". The Eye concludes: 'The home has now been barred from taking in any more children until it can prove they will be safe.'

The Eye bemoans the general war cry of the Rochdale Council which when confronted with this kind of child neglect and abuse, which has a local history dating back to Cyril Smith and the grooming of young girls, arguing: 'Haven't we heard it all before?'

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Rumbelow in Rochdale's Problematic Top Job

by Brian Bamford

ON the 15 OCT 2014, Dan Thompson in the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS (MEN) announced that 'Rochdale council to fill its problem chief executive post.' At the time the now disgraced Councillor Richard Farnell, the then leader of Rochdale council, described the appointment of Mr Rumbelow, a former director for Manchester council, as a ‘major coup’.

Cllr. Farnell added: “He is one of the country’s most successful and dynamic chief executives. He has a wealth of experience in other chief executive and leading local government posts in the north west."

Then the MEN declared that 'The appointment of Steve Rumbelow, who has been chief executive at Burnley council since July 2006, is expected to be approved at a meeting of Rochdale town hall chiefs tonight' and that 'Steve Rumbelow expected to become the town hall's fourth chief executive in the space of three years'.

A giddy Cllr. Farnell enthused: 'He is one of the country’s most successful and dynamic chief executives. He has a wealth of experience in other chief executive and leading local government posts in the north west.

'Rochdale’s priority is bringing new businesses and jobs to the borough and Steve is recognised as one of the most experienced regeneration experts in the region.

'He has led the transformation of Burnley, which was recently named as the Most Enterprising Place in the UK.'

In 2014, Mr Rumbelow proclaimed that he was ‘looking forward’ to taking over the reins at Rochdale Council.

He added: 'I’ve been looking hard at the current challenges and issues ahead for the council and all our partner organisations. But what I’ve really been struck by is the commitment of councillors, officers and people right across the borough to do the best for residents, and develop new opportunities and prospects.

'Rochdale is well known for its pioneering spirit and I am really pleased to have been appointed to this role, and to be able to work alongside so many committed people.'

In 2014 Mr Rumbelow became the fourth chief executive of Rochdale council in the space of three years.

Roger Ellis took early retirement in April 2012 – a month before nine men were jailed over the town’s grooming scandal – and came under fire for taking a £75,000 redundancy package, despite the town hall failing vulnerable victims of sexual abuse.

Mr Ellis was replaced by Jim Taylor, who faced controversy 2013 when Rochdale council tried to give him a £40,000 pay rise – taking his salary to £170,000 – a move that was ultimately defeated by councillors following a huge backlash.

Hence, the role of Chief Executive in Rochdale has not been a happy one over the last decade or so, it's a troubled trade and we wish 'Two-Jobs Rumbelow' all the best in his multiple roles.

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'Joint Enterprise'* and deportation!

by John Wilkins

AN article in The Guardian caught my eye this week because it dealt with the use of what it termed “controversial and discriminatory joint enterprise law.” It also involved the order to deport the person involved in a crime.

I will outline the case first but then look at how double standards seem to be involved when it is a 'black' person rather than a 'white' or 'brown' person involved.

Osime Brown is 21 years old Jamaican born man who came to the UK aged just 4. He is autistic and was slow as a child even in learning to walk. He had behavioural and learning problems at school and it resulted in exclusion aged 16. It would seem his problems had not been forensically diagnosed until then so he never received adequate support, merely being labelled disruptive.

He had been engaged in low level criminal behaviour but the latest crime involved the theft of a mobile phone. Although he was part of the group who took the phone witnesses said he had asked the other teenagers he was with to stop the street robbery, but he was convicted under the joint enterprise law which anyone considered complicit in a crime can be arrested even if they played no part in the crime. Critics say this law has disproportionately criminalised many young black men with those imprisoned through it being 11 times their presence in the community.

I used the term double standards in the headline for a reason. Our local Campaign Group, BOLD, have been following up the way our local authority have appeared to 'sweep under the carpet' the conviction of only 4 out of nearly 20 men who were present when a local workman suffered three broken ribs, a punctures lung and nearly had his hand severed in an axe attack. They were summoned by one of the gang by phone after the victim interceded in a dispute between the man and a lady driver.

The judge quite clearly termed it gangsterism and when local MP was asked to condemn the case as gangsterism he was happy to publicly acknowledge it as such also. Despite councillors, including the leader, the Local Authority officials being asked not just to condemn the gangsterism and how they can work with the police to reduce it in area no one is prepared to comment. A contrast here is that the police have been very open and forthright about how they are working on this issue.

That is one comparison with how Osime has been treated but let me turn to a more startling disparity, that of deportation. The effect of imprisonment itself on Osime has been considerable. He has suffered racial abuse and bullying. Without, his mother says, a mentor or support worker his health has deteriorated and he is self harming. He does not fully comprehend how he would cope in Jamaica, thinking he could catch a bus to visit mum from there!

I have over time felt that those now termed Immigration Enforcement Officers will use easy targets to boost their figures for deportations. Now I come to another very worrying comparison again from my town Rochdale.

Few people will not have knowledge of the grooming scandal involving vulnerable young girls in Rochdale. Three members of the grooming gang remain in the UK more than 18 months after they lost an appeal against losing their British citizenship. I concur with the Independent's sub headline: 'Home Office accused of prioritising offenders with Jamaican roots over sex abusers.'

Yes Osime has been involved in low level crime, but deportation would be extremely cruel for him with no family support in Jamaica and a condition which will make him even more vulnerable there. It is known that at least 11 have died as a result of unjust deportation from the Windrush scandal, it is likely that Osime could be another unnecessary death. I urge you to sign the Change.org petition for Osime Brown.

* Editor's note on Joint Enterprise:

'Why joint enterprise is unfair and needs changing' by Sandra Paul in The Law Society Gazette 23 December 2014

Exactly two years ago, I stood in tears outside Wood Green Crown Court, having just left my 16-year-old client, one of four teenage black males of previous good character, in the cells facing a three-year custodial sentence for GBH. Some 18 months earlier, he had been part of an altercation at Hendon tube station.

He was guilty of common assault, even ABH, and certainly affray. All of these were offered as guilty pleas to the prosecution. However, they were rejected on the basis that joint enterprise would convict a group of the more serious offence of GBH.

CCTV footage shows my client was as far as 20 feet away from the victim at the time he was stabbed. However, my client was convicted of section 18 GBH on the basis that it was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ that others might get involved when he punched the complainant and that ‘serious harm might’ result, irrespective of whether that was what he intended. My client was 14 at the time of the incident and I am convinced could not have forseen that his action could have led to the ultimate outcome which resulted.

Looking at the CPS guideline published since then, I am hopeful, but not convinced, that a review on the same facts would lead to a different result. Consideration of the judge’s directions for the jury outlined in the Crown Court Bench Book is equally problematic for young people.

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Pimp groomer allowed access to Victoria Agoglia

Report reveals culture of gangland entitlement and intimidation!

YESTERDAY Joan Agoglia, the grandmother of Victoria Agoglia whose death triggered the now discredited police Operation Augusta probe into child sexual exploitation in Manchester, told a press conference how the young girl was systematically beaten, bruised and drugged by her groomers.

According to the Manchester Evening News [16th, January 2020]:
'Victoria, who was living in a home under the responsibility of Manchester City Council, died aged 15 after she was injected with heroin by a man then aged 50.'

A report issued this week found:  'Two months prior to her death, Victoria had disclosed to both her social worker and substance misuse worker that an older man was injecting her with heroin.'

It was her death in 2003, that led to the launch by the Greater Manchester Police of their probe and it emerged that she had repeated reported her abuse at the hands of much older Asian men, who according to the report seemed to 'operate in plain sight' in and around care homes often parking their cars outside.

The current report found Victoria had endured 'severe abuse and exploitation' for two years prior to her death.  Sometimes she was taken back to her residential home 'intoxicated'. 

Nazir Afzal was the former Chief Prosecutor for North West England.  He is a British Pakistani Muslim.  He was interviewed very briefly on the Radio 4 PM program on 19th, October 2019.

In the interview he made a quite astonishing claim which does not seem to have received the publicity it deserves so we thought it worth publicizing here.  He said (@34minutes): 'You may not know this, but back in 2008 the Labour government (under Gordon Brown and home secretary Jacqui Smith) sent a circular to all police forces in the country saying:  'as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for you police officers to get involved in.'

In the Manchester case Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, who had commissioned the current report, has said that he will write to the Attorney General to ask that her inquest be reopened.

This case and others more recently, reflect a troubling trend in some areas of this country of a gang culture in which a kind of organised criminality prevails to which some in authority turn a blind eye.

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Letter to the Ed. from a Rochdale resident

 Editor:  This morning NV received the e-mail below

from a local lady.  Because the correspondent is clearly 

afraid, we have decided to withhold her name.

Good morning Brian,

Thank you for sending this [the post: 'When is a Hate Crime not a Hate Crime?'], I've read the article and the Blogspot and I'm still shocked that this hasn't been reported as a hate crime, because it most certainly is!

https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2019/october/Four-men-have-been-jailed-for-their-part-in-a-brutal-gang-attack-which-left-a-man-with-life-changing-injuries-after-being-hit-with-an-axe-in-Rochdale/

As the article states, if it had been reversed then it most surely would have been. I'm so fed up with everyone being scared of saying the wrong thing! Why is it in the interests of the community to lessen the impact of the story when it's Asian against white, but fully reported as a hate crime if it's the other way around? 

The problem is, we're not told 'everything' we're protected from knowing the truth about our areas/places we live in, because of fears there will be repercussions, but there has to be fairness in what's reported. 

When the grooming gangs were sentenced, all those years ago, I saw a group of men and women with placards gathered around the takeaway shop in Heywood. They weren't causing disruption, but the placards said things like "rapists get out" and "not in our town". There was a high police presence and as soon as new people arrived they were dispersed/sent home quickly. All of which I saw as I completed the short drive through the town centre. The thing is, I wasn't aware of why they were there, I looked for a news story but there wasn't one. Of course, the story did eventually break nationwide but it was a good while after.

Maybe 'they' think we couldn't handle knowing the truth? maybe it would start unrest? but this has to stop!  The speed at which the first man gathered up so many people to help him is scary.  The fact that they have weapons to hand, they can just 'grab and go', is incredibly frightening and as I said to you last night, would now make me think twice about helping someone I thought might be in need 

Bit by bit these sorts of incidents are breaking down the local and general community spirit and at a base level the normal feelings of empathy you have for a fellow human being.

Anyway, enjoy your Sunday.

Thanks,

Name redacted 

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The Slow Death of an Institution

by ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’

A COUPLE of years ago the Rochdale Observer published a report of a march by one of those three initial right wing groups ostensibly protesting about the grooming of teenage girls by a gang of Asian men.  The then leader of Rochdale Council, Richard Farnell, castigated the paper because he objected to the prominence given to the report. He wanted powers to ban such marches in future ostensibly on the grounds that they ‘scapegoated an entire community’. In other words he did not think that the people of Rochdale had any right to know what was going on in their town if he did not approve of it.

A week later the ‘Your Views’ section of the paper devoted to letters sent in by readers carried a contribution praising the report and objecting to both Farnell’s attempt to prevent legitimate protest and his attempt to keep residents from knowing about it.

In 2014, Simon Danczuk published a book about the town’s former MP, Cyril Smith, who had died four years earlier. I will be charitable and say that the book was not very good.   It contained material taken from Smiths ghosted autobiography, material that was clearly derivative from a 1979 piece in Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) about Smith unsavoury antics at Cambridge House hostel, material that was later shown to be demonstrably wrong and a lot of assertions for which there was no evidence produced, but which had the effect of making any further claims about Smith’s behaviour unreliable.

Throughout the summer of 2014 the Rochdale Observer carried material, thought by some people to have been placed by an associate of Mr Danczuk, which tried to implicate the local Lib-Dems in a ‘cover up’ designed to ensure that other things about Smith did not become known.

Also throughout the summer the ‘Your Views’ section of the paper regularly carried letters pointing out the deficiencies in Danczuk’s book and why it was not a reliable record.

If Richard Farnell had been allowed to get away with his objection to the original report it might just have had the effect of making the editor a bit more cautious next time.  It wasn’t the Home Affairs Select Committee which challenged Danczuk’s fanciful stories about Smith’s supposed antics being covered up by Special Branch and of Westminster paedophile rings, it was letters in the ‘Your Views’ columns of the Rochdale Observer.

In recent years there’s been a competitor to the Observer in the shape of the web based media outlet Rochdale Online which included a vibrant ‘Letters’ section.  Whichever of these news outlets a letter writer chose one thing was certain its contents would be scrutinised by local politicians.

Sadly that is a thing of the past. The Rochdale Observer first cut down the space devoted to letters from readers, then reduced the frequency of the column to the point where some things are out of date by the time they appear. Rochdale Online went the whole hog and got rid its letters pages completely.

A liberal democracy like ours needs these self correcting mechanisms.  Politicians need close scrutiny. Ideas need to be challenged.   We are moving to a time when politicians and journalists will have a monopoly on the dissemination of ideas. Twitter and Facebook are no substitute for a vibrant ‘Letters’ page in a newspaper or its web based equivalent.   With both Twitter and Facebook it is easy to become locked into a world in which we only hear the views of people we agree with.

Contributions to ‘Letters’ pages in newspapers aren’t perfect.  They can be badly written, erudite, bigoted, idealistic, trivial, important, liberal, conservative, revolutionary or reactionary.   But in local newspapers they give people a sense of belonging because they allow them to have their voice heard.  Our society will be all the worse for their loss.

Grooming Scandals & Cover-ups

 Editorial Note:   Normally we at Northern Voices are uneasy about publishing anonymous comments and accounts, because they clearly do not in the nature of things carry the level of credibility of a signed authorised opinion.  And yet, we feel obliged to give space to the views expressed below about 'voting irregularities' in Rochdale even though we have no way of authenticating the details expressed.  When the Smith case was considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the 1970s, it is said that it was decided that it was not in the public interest to pursue the matter.   Similarly in the light of current publicity about more cases of Asian grooming gangs in Huddersfield following earlier cases in Rochdale and Rotherham etc, it would seem that local authorities have been guilty of what we would describe as aspect blindness, and what others have entitled 'political correctness'.  For this reason we publish the unverified text by the anonymous author below.

******

Anonymous said...

Voting irregularities are rife in this town.  My partner who is of South East Asian extraction knows of friends who only know how they have voted when their husbands tell them ( or not as the case may be) how they filled the postal vote form in.  Criminal prosecutions would be the result anywhere else but Rochdale.  Why does this kind of behaviour go unchallenged by the authorities I wonder?

In this town there is a proactive dysfunctional culture of wilful denial of inconvenient facts - a culture that allowed monsters like Smith to go unchallenged for decades and the Grooming Scandal to be allowed, then ignored - with a collective 'blind eye' being turned yet again - with a collective cognitive dissonance by the guilty, and complicit to allow the same abysmally piss-poor services to then make warped claims that because they are no longer as criminally incompetent and negligent at delivering basic service standards that they have as a result achieved some kind of magnificent improvement as a consequence.

I suspect there is so much more to be exposed in the political cess-pit that Rochdale has become ?

**********

Petition in favour of 'Three Girls' campaigner

MORE than 120,000 people have signed a petition calling for the sexual health worker who advocated for the victims of grooming in Rochdale to be recognised for her work.
The petition asks for acknowledgment of the work of Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health worker played by Maxine Peake in the BBC drama Three Girls, which aired last week and depicted the abuse of girls in Rochdale and their struggle to be taken seriously by authorities.

Three Girls review – a brave new focus on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal

By concentrating on the victims rather than the abusers, this powerful drama does what the Rochdale investigation initially failed to do

Rowbotham was the coordinator of Rochdale’s crisis intervention team from 2003 to 2014 and worked with many of the girls who were victims of the Rochdale grooming scandal. She repeatedly raised concerns about vulnerable girls in the community to police and other authorities, which were dismissed.
She worked for a specialist sexual health service in the city and wrote in the Guardian earlier this month that if that service had not been available 'half the evidence that led to mass convictions would never have come to light'.  She added:  'The girls didn’t trust police or social services to help them and I quickly found out why they felt this way, as no one wanted to listen to them.'

For more:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/21/petition-calls-for-recognition-of-rochdale-sexual-health-

How to be an Inmate?

Michael Burke must prepare his own narrative for cell-mates

by Brian Bamford – a former inmate at Strangeways HMP

IF Michael Burke, who was yesterday sentenced to 15-years jail having been found guilty of raping his own sister 'Selfie Queen' Karen Danczuk as a child, and sexually assaulting two other girls, is to avoid himself being brutalised and possibly raped in the British prison system, he must now be carefully preparing his own narrative to relate to the prison community on the wings. 
Only yesterday the Manchester Evening News (MEN) carried a story by a prison officer at Strangeways notorious Victorian prison in Manchester in which the unnamed source said 'staff are living in fear of violence and nothing is being done to stop inmates using drugs and mobile phones'.

'Out of Sight, Out of Mind'

English people tend to adopt the view of 'Out of sight, out of mind!' with regard to their own prison system, and the anonymous source told the MEN that 'It is clear the home secretary does not understand the issues staff face daily'.

The prison officer is reported to have said in a letter that 'prisoners have no respect for authority, are violent to fellow inmates and staff and take drugs such as spice.'

Furthermore, he wrote:  'There have been several incidents at HMP Manchester where staff have been threatened by prisoners and governors have done nothing to protect the staff.'

'Notoriety' of Defendant and 'Fame' of Complainant

Defending Burke, Nicholas Walker QC said Burke had suffered a downfall of a 'very public nature'.  And Mr. Walker added:  'It's a feature of this case he can't enjoy the luxury of anonymity as the others may enjoy'.  

The judge, Mr Justice Gilbart, told Mr. Walker QC that he was not sentencing Mr. Burke on the 'because of his notoriety' in the media but based of the evidence presented in Court.  Mr Justice Gilbart said of Mrs. Danczuk that though she was 'well known' the Court will protect those in the media, and she had been active as a Councillor. 

Karen Danczuk, the estranged wife of the disgraced Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, had claimed her mother was distant, that her her father worked nights, and that her brother Michael had begun grooming her from the age of six for sex, before getting into bed and raping her from the age of nine as other siblings slept. 

Mr. Justice Goldbart, handing down the sentence to the defendant:  'Whether she (Karen Danczuk) was nine, ten or 11 at the date of the first rape is not clear, but on any view she was a young girl who not reached puberty.  After she had endured your attentions up to the age of 11 she stood up to you, you didn't touch her again.

'You have shown not a shred of remorse in your defence you spent much of your time claiming she had orchestrated a conspiracy against you, a claim I regard as entirely absurd.  Your second victim was a naïve 12-year-old ... you did not care whether she agreed or not, (went from heavy petting to) forcing yourself on her just as you had your sister.

'You ejaculated within her and you persuaded her and she persuaded herself that it was normal.

'You made (the third victim) submit.  Here too you alleged she was part of the conspiracy.' orchestrated by your sister.'

Mr. Justice Goldbart told Mr. Burke:  'You have an attitude to women that reveals a self-justifying lack of insight.'

Meanwhile, we must wait to see if any British newspaper carries another exclusive insightful interview with Karen Danczuk who claims to have suffered 'severe psychological harm'.

On the wings of a Total Institution

As Michael Burke goes into the cells to begin his sentence he will be entering what sociologists call a 'total institution'.  He will be striped, showered and searched before he gets to the cells on the reception wing.  He will be questioned as to any special dietary requirements.  I normally lie and declare myself to be a vegetarian in the hope that it may enable me to get more choice when the food is dished-up.

Once on the wings he must have a suitably convincing narrative to explain his predicament to his fellow cell-mates and other prisoners in the jail community. 

In Court Two of the Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Mr. Justice Goldbart, educated at the  University of Cambridge, may have preached to you about you having 'shown not a shred of remorse'.  That may well be the case, but the prison community is an entirely different jurisdiction from the Crown Court, and he will soon find out it applies its own rules and posses its own hierarchy and standards. 

Rule 43!

Michael Burke needs to prepare himself skillfully if he is not to end up segregated serving his ten-year sentence on Rule 43.*

To establish his status in the prison hierarchy Michael Burke will have to present a story which will  be acceptable and will gain him respect among the inmates.  To do this and survive on the wings, he needs to reaffirm his defence that a 'conspiracy' was 'orchestrated' against him by a group of people who had malicious intent.  In the context of an all-male community the idea of what the novelist Henry James called a 'capricious woman' would not be difficult for the average prison inmate to understand, (see 'The Princess Casamassima ).

For Mr. Burke to now suggest to his fellow prisoners that he is the victim of a 'conspiracy'  by an ex-girl friend and a former partner would not be something that the male prison community would find hard to understand, especially when one of the complainants has given an exclusive interview to the press.  Though it is not yet known if she will be paid for this.

Some substance may be given to this account by an exchange of e-mails in September/ October 2015, when Northern Voices was given a name of someone who had approached some women previously associated with Mr. Burke.

At that time we put the forward the following question to this individual:

'I have been given information from two separate sources that you were in contact with a number of Michael Burke's former girl friends or partners, some of whom subsequently went to the police.  'Could you confirm if this is true, and if it is, explain why you did this? 

'Look forward to your early response'

A reply came back to NV two days later in the form of a threat:

'These allegations are completely untrue, defamatory and may constitute a malicious falsehood if published.'

Considering this response and in the dangerous prison environment as described by the Strangeways prison officer above to the MEN, a conspiracy narrative could save Michael Burke's life.  Karen. Danczuk may have secured what she now calls 'closure' but she has done so by using the criminal justice system to deliver her own brother into the human jungle of the British prison system.  Meanwhile she can now get on with her life like she has been performing on 'Bear Grylls', or being paid to appear on 'Loose Women'.

As a sociologist/ ethnomethodologist as well as a former prison inmate, for practical purposes in prison I would advise Michael Burke to stick to the defence he presented in the Manchester Crown Court: that he is the victim of a 'stitch-up' by what the defence described as an 'attention seeker' and what the press call a 'Selfie Queen'.
*  Rule 43 states that any prisoner can apply to be taken into solitary confinement on a Vulnerable Prisoners Unit, for his own protection. Jailed police and prison officers, sex offenders and showbusiness celebrities often apply for this.

Pitchford uncovers undercover police!

THE Pitchford public inquiry into undercover policing has today issued a very short press release that admits that 'Carlo Neri' was an undercover officer. The 'Update on anonymity applications' reads:  The Inquiry has received confirmation that no restriction is sought over the undercover identity used by the police officer core participant known as N104, which was 'Carlo Neri'. 

The Blacklist Support Group, has been granted core participant status in the Pitchford inquiry issued the following statement: 

'Carlo Neri spied on blacklisted trade union members and anti-racist campaigners, while at the same time having long term sexual relationships with female activists he was keeping under surveillance. There are serious concerns about his conduct while undercover including allegations that he acted as an agent provocateur, inciting anti-fascist activists to commit an arson attack on a charity shop which was run by the Italian fascist Roberto Fiore.  

Neri was only exposed after collective efforts of activists ourselves working along side investigative journalists and researchers. Both Newsnight and The Guardian ran the original story. Photographic evidence from 2005 of Neri spying on an RMT picketline in Kings Cross were published in the "Blacklisted" book published last month.  

'The public statement by the Pitchford inquiry is a vindication of our campaign for justice but this admission has been dragged out of the police who have repeatedly adopted the line that they can 'neither confirm nor deny' (NCND) whether individuals named by activists in the media were police officers. The same NCND tactic used to obstruct the truth is also being applied to the hundreds of campaign groups targeted by the Special Demonstration Squad. While now being forced into admitting that 'Carlo Neri' was a police officer, the Met Police is still refusing to provide relevant police files to those that he targeted.   

'Now is the time for the Met Police to come clean and release the cover names of all the spycops and a list of the campaigns that were infiltrated by these undemocratic political policing units. The continued obstruction by the Met Police endangers the very integrity of the public inquiry. The police are supposed to be accountable to society: Its now reaching the point where parliament needs to step in and get a grip of these anti-democratic forces.'

'Andrea' (not her real name) is part of the Police Spies out of Lives campaign and is currently suing the Metropolitan Police for the emotional abuse caused by the activities of Carlo Neri.  During his deployment, the married undercover officer lived with and proposed marriage to the female activist he was targeting.  'Andrea' reacted to the Pitchford announcement:

'I am of course relieved to have finally received official confirmation that the person I believed to be my partner of more than two years - Carlo Neri - was in reality an undercover police officer. The fact that it has taken the police so long to acknowledge this has undoubtedly caused additional stress and uncertainty within an already difficult situation for myself and my family. MPS initially refused to comment on my complaint, stating that the UCPI would deal with my allegations, but have subsequently stated that they will not contest liability. My case is now in process. MPS do however continue with their inexplicable 'neither confirm nor deny' policy. This is quite simply a strategy to obfuscate, deny access to the truth and it has to stop. As survivors of their abuse, we demand that ALL spycops cover names are released.'

Kate Ellis, from Imran Khan and Partners, the solicitors representing the blacklisted trade union members and anti-racist campaigners targeted by Carlo Neri issued the following statement:

'We welcome the Inquiry’s confirmation of an undercover police officer’s cover name. This shows to our clients in fact how essential it was for there to be a Public Inquiry. To date, the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Operation Herne’ investigation has continued to maintain the absurd position of ‘neither confirming nor denying’ that Carlo Neri was an undercover police officer – despite the fact that everyone else knows and accepts that he was.   

'The Inquiry’s transparency in confirming undercover officers’ identities should not only be welcomed; it should be the default position. The stark difference in approach between the Metropolitan Police and the Inquiry shows that there is an even greater need for the police to open up their files for scrutiny.' 

Notes:

Photographic evidence of Carlo Neri on the RMT picket line is available exclusively from freelance photographer Andrew Wiard (NUJ) andrew@reportphotos.com

Pitchford statement in full: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/161117-press-notice-N104.pdf

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

Row Over headline in 'The Times'

THE chief constable of Greater Manchester has hit back at a headline in The Times that characterised Rochdale as a 'sex grooming town' in its reporting of the murder of the 64-year-old former Imam, Jalal Uddin, last week.
Ian Hopkins in an open letter to the newspaper's editor, posted on Twitter, said that the wording of the headline 'Imam beaten to death in sex grooming town' in an online report into the death in a playground on South Street, Wardleworth, Rochdale on Thursday, had appalled him and could cause community tension.
The chief constable demanded an immediate apology, and said that the police remained open-minded about the circumstances of the murder and that, although they had not ruled out that it may have been racially motivated, there was no evidence to suggest that it was.
Today, DCI Terry Crompton, of the force’s serious crime division, said:
'Our investigation is continuing at a quick pace and we have carried out a significant number of inquiries since the tragic events of last Thursday to establish what happened to Jalal.  We have got two people in custody and I hope these arrests, along with the police activity on Ramsey Street today will reassure the public of just how serious we are taking this investigation.'

TUC Conference Chief Attacks Rochdale MP

Child Sex Abuse, Simon Danczuk & 'Wrong Party' Claim

 YESTERDAY at the Conference of Trade Union Councils in Crewe, following a debate on Child Sex Abuse, the Chair Steve Gillan of the Prison Officers Association commented:

'I do have sympathy for anyone who has Simon Danczuk as an MP.  Because I think that he is in the wrong party.   Taking money from the Daily Mail, and that his wife is little better...' 

This remark, which was not challenged at the conference, would have met with sympathy among many delegates who would identify themselves on the radical wing of the Labour Party, and hostile to Tony Blair.  Nor did anyone contradict a contribution to the debate in which Mr. Danczuk was strongly attacked for using the campaign against child abuse to make political capital for himself and taking payments from the Daily Mail and its right-wing editor Paul Dacre.  At least one of the delegates was from Danczuk's own constituency party.   

A contribution from a delegate from Tameside TUC addressed the problem of  moral panic in relation to child abuse saying:  'We don't want more pious proposals on the issue of child abuse, we want proper research.'   

At the Trade's Council Conference Mr Danczuk stood accused of not employing proper research methods when doing his book on Cyril Smith 'Smile for the Camera', and of failing to answer his critics when asked to explain himself. 

Mr. Danczuk is supporting the alleged right-wing Blairite candidate Liz Kendall in the Labour leadership contest for which nominations close today.   

It was pointed out that Rochdale had been the centre of three separate sex abuse scandals:

• The Satanic Abuse Scandal in 1990:  for which social workers were blamed
• The Asian Grooming Scandal in 2012:  for which social workers were also blamed.
• The claims of a covered-up by Council Officers at Knowl View residential school for boys in 2014.

It was claimed that Simon Danczuk's 'misleading book' had delayed local investigations into child abuse in Rochdale.  It was also claimed that he was using the situation to prolong the agony for the victims in order to profit politically and financially.  The former local MP Geoffrey Dickens for Littleborough and Saddleworth was  also attacked for being a cheerleader in the Satanic Abuse scandal, that led to working-class children being separated from their families and, in some cases, placed in residential homes like Knowl View. 

The motion from Suffolk TUC on child abuse calling on the TUC to, among other things, 'strengthen legal ... support for whistle-blowers' was carried.  Another motion from South Yorkshire TUC entitled 'Rise of the Far Right & their manipulation of the Child Sexual Exploitation scandal' was also carried by the Conference.

British 'Torrent of Rapes' in international media

THIS week both Rochdale and Rotherham featured in the International New York Times.  This was not the first time as the sexual exploitation of youngsters has been getting internation coverage and these northern towns have come to the attention of major media outlets.

On Monday the International New York Times's journalist Katrin Bennhold wrote:
'The recent revelations that at least 1,400 teenage and preteenage girls had been sexually exploited over 16 years by so-called grooming gangs in another northern English city, Rotherham, stunned the nation because of the sheer scale of the abuse.  And it put an uncomfortable spotlight on issues of race, religion and ethnicity in an increasingly multicultural nation:  Nearly all of the rape suspects are Pakistani men, and nearly all the victims are white.'

It seems that the problem and the slow law-enforcement response is not limited to Rotherham and Rochdale.   In nearby Sheffield, a local official has accused the police of ignoring data she passed along over the past decade, including addresses where she said abuse was taking place and names of those suspected of abuse.  The police and prosecutors say they are now pursuing cases more aggressively across the country, including in Manchester, where about 180 suspects are under investigation.

Katrin Bennhold writes:
'In a country already fiercely debating issues of immigration and national identity, the cases have prompted anti-Muslim demonstrations by far-right groups and some soul-searching generally. Why do British-Pakistani men figure so prominently? Were they deliberately targeting white girls and staying away from their own community? Did police and local officials turn a blind eye for fear of being accused of racism, losing votes among immigrant groups or stoking the kinds of tensions that have unleashed periodic rioting in other British towns?' 
Simon Bailey from the Association of Chief Police Officers has warned of 'many more Rotherhams to come'.

Child Sexual Exploitation for 'Political Gain' or 'Personal Profit'?

Who is exploiting sexual grooming?

LAST Friday The Guardian reported that 'the father of the main prosecution witness in Britain's biggest child grooming scandal' had accused Nigel Farage of exploiting the issue for 'political gain' in his party's attempt to 'unseat Labour' in the Heywood and Middleton by-election.  In The Guardian piece the father was given the name 'Tom' to protect his daughter

Heywood in Greater Manchester was the centre of yet another Rochdale scandal in which a sexual trafficing gang of men of mostly Pakistani origin were found to have exploited at least 47 young white girls.  Mr. Farage in a leaflet distributed around the  constituency blamed the Labour Party for its 'love affair' with 'immigration, political correctness and multiculturalism' for betraying the 'white working-class girls'.

It is known that Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale, has had contact with one of the fathers of one of the victims of the earlier sexual abuse grooming scandal which led to the prosecution of nine Asian men in 2012.  Mr. Danczuk has also claimed that a culture existed in Rochdale which allowed these activities to flourish.  Judging from the contents of his book 'Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith' that he and his fellow author Mat. Baker are pushing at the Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival, he still believes in this narrative.

This book by Danzcuk shows that Mr. Danzcuk has some skills not only in the realm of Victorian melodrama, but in the ability to get other people to utter statements that fit his own narrative. 

The Guardian report states:  'Tom was moved to speak to the Guardian about Ukip’s tactics after receiving the leaflets through this door.'  [and] 'To heap blame on “political correctness” did not fully explain the many reasons why the abuse was allowed to continue, he said.'

'Tom' the father of the girl, concluded:  'Its a complex issue about the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and social services, all turning a blind eye.  It’s not all about political correctness, although it was a factor.'

The Guardian story notes:  'Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale who has campaigned for greater transparency around child sex abuse, has been drafted in to help.'

Mr. Danczuk declares:  'Ukip are a genuine threat and people across the party are working hard to fight them street by street...'

The problem here is that Simon Danczuk, with all the money he has made from the serialisation of his book by of all newspapers the Daily Mail, could also be accused of making hay out of exploiting child sexual grooming for both political gain and personal profit.  Certainly when I spoke to the former Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin, some weeks before he died he told me that the whole thing 'had become a money making exercise', and he wasn't referring just to the book that had been published but to the serialisation in the Daily Mail by Danczuk and Baker.

Another Grooming Probe in Rochdale & Beyond

Not 'a homogenious group acting in concert' 

 

GREATER Manchester Police claim they are focusing on 30 suspects and have interviewed over a hundred people in the course of an inquiry into yet another potential grooming scandal in Rochdale and beyond.  This follows on from the jailing of nine men in 2012 for the sexual abuse and exploitation of at least five young girls in the Rochdale and Heywood areas. 

 

The police have said that this time the suspects have not been 'acting in concert' as 'a homogenious group'.

 

Besides the Rochdale area this alleged abuse is said to have been carried out in other parts of Greater Manchester.  These new revelations of grooming in the North West come on the heels of the recent exposure in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, of the abuse of 1,400 girls over a 16 years period.

 

Roughly a quarter of Greater Manchester's most senior detectives in the major incident teams are examining sex cases dating back to the 1960s.  This includes allegations about the Rochdale MP, Cyril Smith, first published in the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979, to more recent cases of alleged grooming gangs and abuse in local care homes in the Greater Manchester area.

 

Following the outing of Jimmy Savile in 2012, Northern Voices helped to finally unmask Cyril Smith by supplying evidence to the local Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk.  He then included this material in his speech in the House of Commons on the 13th, November 2012.

 

In the past in has been claimed that there are rings or gangs of sexual abusers operating in the North West, this time the police have said that there is no 'homogenious group acting in concert'.

 

 



Rotherham: Those who looked the other way?

THE Home Secretary, Theresa May, has said that social workers, council bosses and police chiefs who failed to act to prevent the Rotherham sex abuse scandal ought to resign.  This follows a damning report produced by Professor Alexis Jay. 

Mrs May has said:
'I’ve seen the horrific cases they have looked into where young girls were the victims of the most appalling sexual exploitation and threats of violence, grooming and abuse and yet their calls for help went unheeded by the council or the police. I think everybody needs to look at the role they played in this and their position.'

Among those identified for failing in their responsibilities are Shaun Wright, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, who has so far refused to resign despite holding responsibility for children’s services on Rotherham council, and Joyce Thacker, head of the council’s children’s services.  Mr. Wright has resigned from the Labour Party after leading figures in the party told him he ought to give up his current job, but he has so far refused to resign his current position as police and crime commissioner.


Mr Wright, who was elected to the £85,000-a-year commissioner’s post in 2012, having previously served as a Labour councillor with responsibility for children’s services, said on Wednesday that he had no idea about the   'industrial scale' of the abuse that had taken place.


Prof Jay, for her part has insisted that, given her findings that 'nobody could say "I didn’t know".'


Others who will be challenged for their alleged roles in the scandal include:
Paul Laker, a Labour councillor; Jahangir Akhtar, the former deputy leader of Rotherham council; Dr Sonia Sharp, the director of children’s services between 2005 and 2008; and Diane Billups, the council’s director of education and head of children’s services between 2001 and 2005.


Mr. Laker, a former steel-worker, a cabinet member for children's services since 2010 and deputy council leader is claiming that he had only recently grasped the 'depth and breadth' of the sex abuse problem in Rotherham.  Mr. Akhtar, another former deputy leader of the council, was temporarily forced out of office after claims that he was aware of a relationship between one of his own relatives and a 14-year-old girl.  The police cleared him of any wrongdoing after an investigation, and he lost his seat on the council last May.  Mrs. Billups has since retired, and Dr. Sharp now works in a department of education in Austrialia.  Joyce Thacker, 56, is currently on £115,000-a-year as director of children and young people's services; she was in charge four years ago when five Asian men were convicted of raping three girls as young as 12. 


Ms. Thacker has said by way of explanation and justification:
'I would put the responsibility back on the parents. It is their duty to protect their children and keep them safe.  We couldn't be with them 24-hours a day.'

Yesterday, the former MP for Rotherham, Denise MacShane, was more straight-forward in accepting that he should have done more.  On BBC News Mr. MacShane said:
'I should have burrowed into this.  Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and a liberal leftie I suppose, I didn't want to rock the boat I didn't want to raise that too hard.'

It seems that Mr. MacShane has previously admitted that he, like other politicians, had feared losing Muslim votes if he aired 'the dirty secrets about bad practices in the Kashmiri Muslim community'.

We must wait to see if this mentality is more widespread among the politicians in our northern town halls.

Simon Danczuk to name another paedophile?

TOM Porter a journalist on the International Business Times has written that the Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk 'who alleged that the late parliamentarian Sir Cyril Smith was a paedophile said he is prepared to name a second, living, politician who he believes is guilty of child abuse.'

On 1 July, Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale, is scheduled to give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on historic child sexual exploitation concerning allegations in his recent book authored by Danczuk and Matthew Baker that Smith abused children at the Elm Guest House in south-west London in the 1970s and the 1980s.

An MP on the committee has confirmed to the Independent on Sunday that Danczuk will be asked about other visitors to the guest house when he appears before them.
'If asked any question, I will feel obliged to answer that question,' Danczuk told the paper.

Danczuk has previously claimed that an 'influential' politician who is still in parliament, was a visitor at the guest house, where a paedophile ring that included Smith allegedly groomed and abused boys.

'I'm confident there are questions to answer. I base that on quite extensive conversations I've had with the police,' Danczuk said.

Police launched an investigation into the alleged child abuse ring at Elm Guest House after claims by Labour MP Tom Watson.

Earlier this month Conservative MP for Richmond Zac Goldsmith called for the UK Home Secretary Theresa May to launch a parliamentary inquiry into the conclusions of an investigation into child abuse at Knowl View School in Rochdale, where Smith was a governor.

The committee will ask Danczuk and campaigner Matthew Baker what they believe happened at Elm Guest House.

Protected by parliamentary privilege, they will be able to give evidence without fear of litigation.
Danczuk told the Independent that if asked, he will also name another living politican who he believes is implicated in a separate child abuse scandal.

So far, police have made no charges in connection with the investigation.

Officers are also investigating claims that a VIP paedophile ring abused boys at Grafton Close Children's Home in Richmond, south-west London.

Seven MPs & an independent inquiry into Child Sex Abuse

Exaro Exclusive: The magnificent seven MPs campaign for independent inquiry into historic child sex abuse

Posted on June 3, 2014 by David Hencke

Zac Goldsmith MP

An important step was taken today when seven MPs wrote to Theresa May asking for an independent panel inquiry to be launched into repeated failures by police to investigate thoroughly historic cases of child sexual abuse. They want the equivalent of the investigation into the Hillsborough disaster.The initiative came from Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP for Richmond, who has become acutely aware that the Met Police have still not got to the bottom of the historic child sex scandal at Elm Guest House in his constituency despite two people due to stand trial.
He decided that the issue was too important to become a political football and that an all party approach – it involves MPs from four parties- Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green- was the best way forward.

Caroline Lucas MP

The result is revealed on the Exaro website today in two reports by me outlining the letter and the key cases where they have been repeated failures – every time police investigation have come near VIPs. evidence seems to have gone missing, dossiers lost,surveillance material disappearing, seized child porn DVDs lost and even police investigation reports possibly censored.

John Hemming MP

The first report on Exaro details the letter sent to Theresa May and the type of inquiry MPs want. The second report goes into more detail about what MPs want investigated. well as Zac, the other six MPs, are the former coalition children’s minister,Conservative MP Tim Loughton; Labour’s Tom Watson, who raised the question of a paedophile ring run by the late Peter Righton; Labour MP Simon Danczuk, the Rochdale MP who exposed further scandals around the late Sir Cyril Smith; Tess Munt, Liberal Democrat MP for Wells and parliamentary private secretary to Vince Cable, who has concerns about physical and sexual abuse in military schools; John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham, Yardley, who has raised similar issues of child sexual abuse, and Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, who expresses concern about the issue.

Simon Danczuk MP

These magnificent MPs have put their political differences aside and put their heads above the parapet. They do not mince their words about the unsatisfactory situation that still persists.

Tim Loughton MP

As Tim Loughton puts it:“Virtually every week, the public is bombarded with new stories about sexual abuse of children coming to light, yet they stretch as far back as the 1960’s.“Few areas have been left untouched with increasingly alarming stories involving schools, churches, care homes, entertainment, sport and of course politicians and celebrities.“Most alarming is a consistent theme of the reluctance or, more worryingly, the seeming complicity of police and other agencies to investigate the allegations seriously, and pursue the perpetrators rigorously.
“Documents go missing and investigations are curtailed with a chilling frequency, and that now threatens a serious undermining of the public’s confidence in our current child-protection system despite all the progress that has undoubtedly been made in recent years.”

Tessa Munt MP

It is really time to act. Teflon Theresa May – not known as a shrinking violet in dealing with tough and controversial issues – should very seriously consider what the MPs want and why they feel driven to ask for it.

Tom Watson MP

Rochdale 'Institutionally Blind' to Sex Crimes?

asks Simon Danczuk M.P. 

'I began to wonder,' writes Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk in today's Daily Mail, 'if years of child abuse being covered up in Rochdale had normalised this crime,' and he asks:  'Had the constituency become institututionally blind?'

In an exclusive serialising of the forthcoming book 'Smile For The Camera' by Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker, to be published by Biteback on April 15th, £16.99, the Daily Mail today has devoted a leading article, five pages inside, and an editorial.  The Mail story reports:  'For four decades, the depraved 29st politician (Cyril Smith) was free to prey on vulnerable children as young as eight.' 

 

In an editorial entitled 'A moral scandal that shames liberal elite', the Daily Mail comments:  'TODAY the Mail begins serialising a profoundly disturbing book that should shake the conscience of Britain's liberal elite, while raising questions of huge topical relevance about moral corruption at the heart of politics and the State.'

 

This is of ongoing important today, because as Mr. Danczuk writes in his book:

'In May 2012, nine men were jailed for horrific abuse committed against teenage girls in the town (of Rochdale).'

 

We must wait to see what new comes out of the revelations in the book, but at present Mr. Danczuk and the Daily Mail are putting more flesh on the bone.  Most important will be how the cover-up of Smith's crimes was manipulated for so long, and why he was so successfully.  What part did MI5 play in hiding the evidence, and did Jack McCann, the Rochdale Labour MP in the 1960s, and friend of Cyril Smith, help him deal with the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)?  Was the Home Secretary contacted by Jack McCann?

 

These are all questions that are of interest to Northern Voices, which was in the forefront of putting this story into the public domain in the Autumn of 2012.