The damning 173-page report into Operation Span - Greater Manchester Police's (GMP) much-criticised investigation into the grooming allegations in Rochdale - also identified 96 men still deemed a potential risk to children.

The report, the result of a six-year investigation commissioned by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, covered 2004 to 2013 and reviewed the cases of 111 children on police files during the period of Operation Span.

It found that there was evidence 74 of the children were being sexually exploited and in 48 cases there were "serious failures" to protect them.

The report detailed multiple failed investigations by police and an apparent indifference among local authorities to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse by Asian men.

Steven Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, who took up the role in May 2021, described the findings of the report as "shocking, stark and shameful".

"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 added.

He said that the "lessons from our past had been well and truly learned" and were "solidly baked" into the systems used by police and partner agencies involved in child safeguarding today.

"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 said, adding that frontline officers were also "better trained" in child safeguarding.

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The report states there was "compelling evidence" of widespread, organised sexual abuse of children in Rochdale from as early as 2004 onwards.

Three years later, in 2007, a crisis team led by Sara Rowbotham - who would become a whistleblower in the scandal - alerted GMP and Rochdale Council to the involvement of an organised crime group.

GMP identified the ringleaders of the gang but did not investigate further because the children were too frightened to assist.

That, the report said, was a "serious failure" to protect the children, because it ignored the coercion and control the groomers had over their victims and families.

Children as young as 12 gang-raped above takeaway shops

Another police investigation into two takeaway shops in Rochdale, involving 30 adult male suspects, was also aborted prematurely because police bosses failed to resource it and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deemed the main child victim an unreliable witness.

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

A detective inspector asked for more staff to investigate. However, according to the report, police bosses denied the request.

"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.

It wasn't until December - more than two years after first being told of abuse centred on two takeaway restaurants - that GMP finally acted, launching Operation Span.

The operation led to the conviction in May 2012 of nine men in a high-profile court case, which heard girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang raped in rooms above takeaway shops.

It was hailed at the time as a "fantastic result of British justice" by Greater Manchester Police.

But the report released today found the police operation failed to address numerous other crimes and ignored children's allegations, letting their abusers off the hook.

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Convictions 'only scraped the surface' of child abuse

While police and council bosses presented the court convictions as having "resolved" grooming in the town, the reality was that it had "only scraped the surface", the report found.

In fact, the report concludes, the problem was not given "sufficient priority", despite senior and middle managers in the police and children's social care being aware of the scale of abuse involved.

"We regard this as a lamentable strategic failure by senior leaders in GMP and Rochdale Council," the report continues.

It said the failure to prioritise, detect, disrupt or prosecute "should firmly be laid at the door of the senior officers in GMP throughout this period".

Malcolm Newsam CBE, a renowned childcare expert who co-authored the report, 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."

Failures 'still happening'

The Rochdale report released today follows similar reviews by the same authors on grooming in Manchester and Oldham, which found authorities had again failed children - leaving them in the clutches of paedophile gangs.

Mr Newsam authored the report with Gary Ridgeway, a former detective superintendent, following allegations by whistleblowers Ms Rowbotham and Maggie Oliver, former GMP detective who resigned from the force in disgust, in a BBC TV documentary The Betrayed Girls, which aired in 2017.

The report found Ms Rowbotham and Ms Oliver were "lone voices" who had flagged the clear evidence of "prolific serial rape of countless children in Rochdale".

Ms Oliver has since founded The Maggie Oliver Foundation, a charity supporting adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

On Monday, speaking at a press conference on the publication of the report, Ms Oliver rejected the chief constable's claim that the situation had improved, adding: "My work with the foundation now means I have current information about what is going on today and I would say categorically, and I'm sorry Mr Watson, but 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."

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

He also called for bodies involved in the case to launch internal disciplinary action against those responsible for the failings.

Speaking about the report, 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."

'Those responsible are long gone'

GMP has since launched further investigations, which have so far resulted in the conviction of 42 men involved in the abuse of 13 children.

According to Rochdale Council, recent Ofsted inspections have found "the way children at risk of sexual exploitation are protected by Rochdale's children's services has improved".

Both the council and the police say they have overhauled the way they prevent and respond to child sexual exploitation to ensure that victims and survivors are cared for and receive the expected level of service.

Rochdale Council leader Neil Emmott said: "We are deeply sorry that the people who were at 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.

"I want to reassure the public that those responsible are gone and long gone. No amount of contrition or apology can ever repair the awful damage that was done to the lives of these survivors.

"As the current leader of Rochdale Council I want to repeat the apology we have made previously but also to reassure the public that far more rigorous practices are in place today to protect our children.

"Rochdale was already investigating these historical cases when the Mayor's review began in 2017 and a number are still ongoing and we want to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.

"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."