Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta

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Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta Jan 14, 2020 22:14:02 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jan 14, 2020 22:14:02 GMT

At least 57 young girls are thought to have been exploited by a paedophile network of around 100 suspected perpetrators based in south Manchester in the 2000s. The gang, mainly comprised of Asian men, hooked their victims on drugs, groomed, and sexually abused them. One girl, aged 15, died after being injected with heroin by a 50-year-old man.

Following a two-year inquiry, commissioned by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, into the historic failings of police and social workers, a report was published today which concluded that vulnerable girls in care were groomed and abused in "plain sight".

The report found multiple failings at the hands of GMP, including how fears over race relations appear to have played a part in senior police thinking when tackling grooming gangs comprised of predominantly Asian men.

It added that officers were aware of "many sensitive community issues" around policing in south Manchester in 2002 and 2003.

Giving evidence to the report panel, a Detective Superintendent was emphatic that any concerns about creating further community tensions did not influence any of his investigative decisions, but the impact "clearly had to be considered" by senior officers in the gold command group.

However the report also quotes an unnamed GMP detective constable, involved in the arrest and jailing of one child sex offender, who was not of Asian heritage.

It quotes him as saying: "What had a massive input was the offending target group were predominantly Asian males and we were told to try and get other ethnicities."

Operation Augusta was set up in 2004 and uncovered the systematic exploitation of looked after children mainly in the care system in the city of Manchester and around the Rochdale area.

Today’s report, report, written by child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam CBE and former senior police officer Gary Ridgway, comes following the death of 15-year-old Victoria Agoglia, who – after years of abuse and days after she was injected with heroin by a 50-year-old man - died in hospital of an overdose in 2003.

The inquiry was launched off the back of allegations made by former GMP detective turned whistleblower, Maggie Oliver.

As a detective, she had investigated countless gangland murders, shootings, kidnappings, rapes and witness protection jobs. She said that she felt “vindicated” by the report.

She said: “Girls were lost to the wind. What has been the cost of all these lives? We will never be able to put a number on how many lives have been lost.

“I want the law changing so there can be retrospective accountability for people whose duty it is to protect the vulnerable. It’s knowing and deliberate neglection of duty…[those who were involved] should be charged with gross misconduct - it’s criminal - where is the accountability?

“I was face-to-face with 15 years of misogyny - ‘stupid woman, she’s become too emotionally involved’ - authorities are very powerful and tried to control the dialogue.

Last Edit: Jan 15, 2020 2:51:07 GMT by Admin

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Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta Jan 15, 2020 2:50:32 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jan 15, 2020 2:50:32 GMT

“There will be other people in their own force areas who see similar things, I encourage them to stand up and speak up. This has been life for 15 years, it’s destroyed my life but I don’t regret it because we’ve made the public aware that this is the truth. I think the establishment will do half the job if they can get away with it.”

GMP has made a referral to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct. so that they can carry out an independent assessment to determine if there are any conduct matters that should be investigated.

Assistant Chief Constable Mabs Hussain, Head of Specialist Crime for Greater Manchester Police, said: “We accept that authorities fell short of doing all they could to protect and support the child victims of sexual exploitation identified under Operation Augusta in 2004.

“Children should be able to expect those responsible for their care will do all they can to keep them safe and I want to apologise to all those vulnerable children who were let down.

“I can only imagine the pain and distress they must have gone through, which would have only been made worse by these failings. I am sorry they were let down and I am sorry they were not protected from harm.

“Many of the children were subject to the most profound abuse and, although the review team acknowledged there was much in Operation Augusta and the work carried out by the investigation team to be commended, we agree the overall operation was not to the standard rightfully expected from victims.”

He added that the case involving Victoria Agoglia’s death is ongoing and anyone with information is being urged to come forward.

Victoria Agoglia was in the care of Manchester City Council following the death of her mother. The report found that her carers were aware of her being subjected to "multiple threats, sexual assaults and serious sexual exploitation" and were told that she was being "injected with heroin by an older Asian man [however] no action was taken by the police or social care".

She subsequently died "having been administered an overdose", but the men who exploited her "have never been brought to justice", the report said, Following the publication of the report, grandmother, Joan Agoglia, said the publication of the report made her feel "wonderful as I've been fighting for this all my life, it seems".

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Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta Jan 16, 2020 8:14:22 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2020 8:14:22 GMT

Thousands of teenagers in care are living in unregulated homes and being "abandoned to organised crime gangs", Newsnight is told.

Sexual abuse of children in care homes in Nottinghamshire was widespread for decades and a failure to learn from mistakes exposed more young people to harm, a report has found.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse revealed in the report published today that abuse including repeated rapes, sexual assaults and voyeurism took place during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in many of Nottingham City Council and Nottingham County Council's homes as well as in foster care.

As well as this, "harmful sexual behaviour" also occurred between children in both areas, it said.

The report said: "For more than five decades, the councils failed in their statutory duty to protect children in their care from sexual abuse.

"These were children who were being looked after away from their family homes because of adverse childhood experiences and their own pre-existing vulnerabilities.

"They needed to be nurtured, cared for and protected by adults they could trust. Instead, the councils exposed them to the risk, and reality, of sexual abuse perpetrated primarily by predatory residential staff and foster carers."

Around 350 people came forward to reveal the alleged abuse they suffered dating back to the 1960s. The true scale is likely to be higher.

Between the late 1970s and 2019, the report found 16 residential staff were convicted of sexual abuse of children in residential care. Ten foster carers were also convicted of sexual abuse of their foster children.

The panel said it was also aware of 12 convictions relating to the harmful sexual behaviour of children against other children in care.

At the notorious Beechwood Care Home, male and female former residents described being routinely sexually abused by members of staff and being too scared to report it.

The report said "sexualised behaviour by staff was tolerated or overlooked" which allowed some abusers to "flourish".

The abuse also took place at other children's residential units, including Hazelwood, Skegby Hall, Edwinstowe, Sandown Road, Wollaton House, Hillcrest, Risley Hall, Greencroft, Beckhampton Road, Woodnook, Amberdale and Three Roofs.

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Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta Jan 17, 2020 22:20:32 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2020 22:20:32 GMT

Known as Vicky, she also used her stepfather’s surname of Byrne and dreamed of becoming a model. But in the two years before her death, the report found Victoria was repeatedly “threatened, assaulted and returned to her residential unit intoxicated”.

The shocking report said she disclosed at the time she was involved in sexual exploitation and alleged rape and sexual assault.

The report added: “Although cared for by the council, a man identified as her ‘pimp’ was given permission to visit her in her accommodation three times a week.”

It said this relationship was known about by police and the council but appears to have been “condoned by social services” and no attempts were apparently made to find out exactly who the man was.

In March 2003, six months before her death, the man took her to the home of one of his relatives.

She later reported that she had been raped but despite a medical examination, the abuse was allowed to continue.

Two months before her death, Victoria told her social worker and a substance misuse worker that an older man was injecting her with heroin.

But the report says: “No formal action was taken to investigate this matter or prevent it occurring again.

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Victoria Agoglia: Operation Augusta Feb 3, 2020 20:41:08 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 3, 2020 20:41:08 GMT

Many of the offenders I have spoken to were also involved – or on the fringes of – low-level crime, most commonly drug dealing and theft. They tended to lack victim empathy and had a habit of trying to taint victims by suggesting they lied about their age or were already drug addicts and/or sexually promiscuous.

The victims of child sexual exploitation in these cases were targeted because they were considered “available” by their circumstance and behaviour: they were in care, truanting from school, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, staying out late at night or being overtly sexual. The vast majority of victims were underage white girls. Their perceived availability and vulnerability led the perpetrators to believe, rightly, that these girls were unlikely to tell anyone what was happening to them.

When it comes to child sexual exploitation, grooming takes on a series of behaviours designed to ensure secrecy, increase victim compliance, build rapport and avoid detection. Extensive research tells us that these tactics make sexual abuse much more likely.

Abandoned victims
Review after review has found that there is a tendency by almost all protection agencies to to essentially leave these vulnerable girls to suffer and let the criminals continue their offending. One of the reasons for this is the issue of the ethnicity of the perpetrators.

As a criminologist I believe all criminals should be defined by their actions and punished accordingly. But it is necessary and relevant for society to discuss the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims and how this influences specific crimes.

It is not racist to do this, just as it is not racist to say that the majority of men on the UK sex offenders register for sexual crime are white. It is also important to remember that black and minority ethnic children and young people are victims of sexual exploitation, too.

But in May 2019 it was estimated that there were at least 73 grooming gangs operating in the UK. The inability of South Yorkshire Police and other forces to act professionally and speak openly and plainly about the ethnicity of on-street child abusers is a significant factor in why these horrific offences have gone undetected for so long and it remains a significant factor today.