𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

This week, the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs announced the first areas selected for local investigations: Oldham, Bradford, Keighley and London.

I pay tribute to the survivors who have lost years of their lives fighting for years to make this happen. Many waived their anonymity, relived deeply traumatic experiences and faced public criticism and trolling simply for speaking the truth – even from the Prime Minister, who labelled both them and me as “far-Right extremists” for simply speaking the truth.

The inclusion of London is particularly significant. For too long, attention has focused on a handful of towns in the North, while the scale of offending and institutional failures in the capital has escaped the level of scrutiny they deserve.

Recent investigations by the Daily Express have shone a spotlight on those failures, exposing serious concerns and helping bring much-needed public attention to what has been happening in London. That increased scrutiny has been important, and I believe it has played a significant role in ensuring the capital can no longer be overlooked.

But while some areas have been included, many others have not. That matters because this was never a problem confined to a handful of towns and cities. What happened was a national scandal. I know this from my 20 years of experience of listening to many harrowing stories.

At the heart of this are children. Children who should have been protected but were instead raped, exploited and abused while the very institutions responsible for their safety failed them. I have never accepted that these were simply mistakes or missed opportunities. What I witnessed throughout my policing career was a deliberate “wilful blindness” by police, social services, prosecutors, local authorities and successive governments.

In my view, concerns about political sensitivities and fear of rocking the multicultural boat too often took precedence over protecting vulnerable children. The consequences were catastrophic. Abuse was allowed to continue, perpetrators were not pursued with the urgency their crimes demanded, and organised networks were able to grow, expand and perfect their methods over many years.

The children who were failed paid the price. Many lost years of their lives to trauma, addiction, poor mental health and the devastating consequences of abuse that should never have been allowed to continue. That is unforgivable.

This is why ACCOUNTABILITY matters.

Not just institutional accountability hidden behind reports and apologies, but individual accountability. Institutions do not make decisions – people do. The children who were failed deserve to know who made the decisions that left them unprotected and why repeated warnings were ignored.

Many survivors are demanding criminal accountability. So am I. That is non-negotiable.

The Maggie Oliver Foundation will support this inquiry to the best of our ability because survivors deserve answers, and the truth must finally be exposed. But anyone familiar with my work knows that we will not pull our punches.

We will continue to speak honestly, challenge where challenge is needed, and fight to ensure survivors are properly heard, properly represented and equipped with the expert support needed to stand on an equal footing with the public institutions whose actions are under scrutiny.

We are currently leading a judicial review against the Government over its failure to implement the 20 recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. As Baroness Longfield states here, 800 recommendations from previous inquiries remain UNIMPLEMENTED, and that begs the question as to why we should embark on further inquiries if they are again to sit on a shelf.

The two issues are inseparable. If inquiries identify failures but governments ignore the recommendations, children remain at risk.

This inquiry must not simply document what happened. It must uncover why it happened, who was responsible, and ensure those responsible will finally be held to account. Ideally criminally. Most importantly, it must ensure that future generations of children are never failed in the same way again.

Maggie Oliver is a detective-turned-whistleblower who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in late 2012 to expose the Rochdale grooming scandal. She is the founder and chairwoman of The Maggie Oliver Foundation