Latest news with #Oldham
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Oldham keepers Hudson & Donaghy extend deals
Oldham Athletic goalkeepers Mathew Hudson and Tom Donaghy have signed new 26, has signed a three-year contract after making 40 appearances as the Latics won promotion back to the Football League last 22, who joined from Fleetwood Town in February and played 10 times for Oldham in the 2024-25 campaign, has signed a two-year deal."I'm really proud to be staying at Oldham. This club means a lot to me and I've enjoyed every minute here," Hudson told the club website., external
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Rayner ally dragged into grooming gangs row
A Government minister and ally of Angela Rayner led a council that chose not to refer to the Pakistani heritage of grooming gangs. Jim McMahon was the leader of Oldham council when its child sexual exploitation taskforce sought to avoid drawing attention to the ethnicity of perpetrators in its media strategy. In 2012, the service expressed concern about 'community tensions' and said the 'proactive confirmation of ethnicity could provide ammunition for far-Right groups that might attempt to focus additional attention on Oldham regarding this issue'. A report by Baroness Casey this week found that police had avoided pursuing child sex grooming gangs for fear of being viewed as racist. It added that evidence suggested there were 'disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation'. Mr McMahon, a minister in the Deputy Prime Minister's local government department, served as the leader of Oldham council between 2011 and 2016. He was elected as MP for Oldham West and Royton in 2015. During his time at the council, he also served as the chairman of the local safeguarding accountability board. A 2022 report into local authorities' response to child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester examined the Messenger service, a partnership that involved Greater Manchester Police and Oldham council. It said that Messenger's 2012 media strategy 'articulated a concern that there could be assumptions in the media and the public at large that child sexual exploitation was carried out by men from ethnic minorities against white girls, which could create community tensions, and that Oldham's Asian community could feel it was disproportionally associated with child sexual exploitation'. The ensuing media strategy did not mention the ethnicity of victims or perpetrators. Instead, one of the key messages was: 'Children are being sexually exploited in all communities across the UK, regardless of ethnicity, culture, class or gender. 'Furthermore, children from loving and secure homes can be abused, as well as children with pre-existing vulnerabilities.' The Conservatives said that the revelations were 'damning'. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'While young girls were being groomed and abused in Oldham, Labour council leaders were busy drafting media strategies to downplay the role of Pakistani gangs and worry about community optics. 'There is no hiding from this. Survivors were failed and communities were misled, because actions like this perpetuated the shameful cover up of these crimes. A Labour spokesman said Mr McMahon was 'explicit and vocal' about the fact that the abuse involved predominantly Pakistani men, 'long before many others'. He added: 'To suggest this was in any way downplayed defies the evidence.' Lady Casey said in her report that she found 'many examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist, raising community tensions or causing community cohesion problems'. She cited the 2022 Greater Manchester report, which was conducted after Oldham council requested a review into its practices in 2019. She said it 'finds flaws in Greater Manchester Police and Oldham council's safeguarding systems, but no evidence of a cover-up of child sexual exploitation'. Lady Casey told MPs this week that she recommended a national statutory review because of the 'reluctance' of local areas to do their own reviews. She cited Oldham as the only council willing to do a review when five local inquiries were announced. Mr McMahon wrote a blog post in September 2014, almost two years after the media strategy for Messenger was approved, in which he explicitly stated the link between grooming and Pakistani men. He said: 'Anyone who shies away from acting that in Rotherham, Oxford, Rochdale and here in Oldham – and that this particular form of abuse is predominantly Pakistani men targeting white girls – is not helping the victims, and nor is it helping the Asian community at large.' Referring to the blog post, the 2022 report said that: 'This contemporaneous record clearly refutes the suggestion that Leader A [Mr McMahon] had any intention to protect those perpetrators from the Pakistani community who were exploiting children in Oldham and, quite the contrary, demonstrates Leader A's determination to address the issue publicly and head on.' It added: 'There were also, throughout this period, legitimate concerns by both the council and the police that the high-profile convictions of predominantly Pakistani offenders across the country could be capitalised on by a far-Right agenda and lead to the victimisation of the Pakistani community. 'However, it is clear from all the evidence we have seen that the council and its partners in no way avoided addressing this, and in fact saw successful disruption and prosecution as the route to winning the confidence of all communities in Oldham.' Mr McMahon told the Commons in June 2022 that the independent report 'is clear that, during the period from 2011, when I became leader of Oldham Council, I did absolutely everything possible to publicise the threat of child sexual exploitation and sought to tackle the issue head on'. 'Council failed to be publicly honest' Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: 'Jim McMahon ran a council whose media strategy was to brush the background of the rape gang offenders and their victims under the carpet. 'It speaks to a council more worried about false accusations of 'racism' than protecting vulnerable, white working-class girls. 'This failure to be publicly honest about what was going on led to the scandal going unaddressed for decades.' He added: 'With Labour councillors, MPs and ministers implicated in the appalling scandal, it's no surprise Starmer delayed holding an inquiry as long as he could.' A Labour Party spokesman said: 'Far from downplaying that this particular form of abuse involved predominantly Pakistani men targeting white girls, Jim was explicit and vocal about it, saying as leader of Oldham council, long before many others would, that to do so would not be helping the victims, nor the Asian community at large. To suggest this was in any way downplayed defies the evidence.' A spokesman for Oldham council said: 'We've never shied away from owning and apologising for historic failings to keep children safe from these horrendous crimes. The 2022 assurance review – which anyone can read online – outlined significant opportunities that were missed by the council and Greater Manchester Police and for those we are deeply sorry. 'However, Malcolm Newsome and Gary Ridgway were really clear in their review – Oldham council 'in no way' avoided issues around the ethnicity of offenders in the borough. In fact the records from the time show that the then leader of the council was determined to 'to address the issue publicly and head-on'. 'We engaged fully with Louise Casey for her review, and we are the only council in the country to come forward for a local inquiry. We were unflinching then and unflinching now about the mistakes of the past and our determination to protect children from this horrific abuse. We won't play political games on this issue – our survivors deserve better.'
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Man who stabbed wife in front of baby told doctor he ‘felt he would kill her'
A man who stabbed his wife to death in front of their baby after tracking her to a refuge told a doctor he 'felt like he would kill her' more than a year before the fatal attack, a court heard. Kulsuma Akter, 27, was killed by her husband Habibur Masum, 26, after he confronted her in the street while she was pushing their seven-month-old son in a pram on April 6 last year. A trial has heard Masum tracked Ms Akter to a refuge in Bradford, where she had been staying since January 2024 after he allegedly held a knife to her throat during an assault at their home in Oldham in November 2023. Giving evidence at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday, Masum said the couple met and married in Bangladesh, and came to the UK in 2022 after he obtained a student visa and enrolled on a Masters course to study Marketing. The defendant, who gave evidence through a Bengali interpreter, said they initially had a long-distance relationship as he lived in Aylesbury while studying and she lived in Oldham with her brother. He told the court they had 'occasional disagreements or arguments' about when they should live together and she would 'block him' when she was angry. Masum said: 'I used to feel if I can't be with her I would die.' Jurors heard in August 2022 Masum was found by police at a tram station, where he had stayed all night after an argument with Ms Akter. He was taken to hospital where he told a doctor 'I feel like I would kill her' and said 'when he fights with her he feels like he is going to kill her'. Medical notes showed he 'disclosed thoughts to harm himself and his girlfriend and admitted to carrying a knife while having these thoughts'. Masum told the trial he had never carried a knife in Ms Akter's presence. Asked by his barrister Frida Hussain KC why he had made those comments at the hospital, he replied: 'I said: 'I feel I'm having some mental health issues and I would like to share something with the doctor'… I just wanted to share all that with the doctor.' The court heard he was advised to register with a GP and seek support from his university. Masum described feeling 'depressed', but said he never sought help from a GP. The court heard he and Ms Akter moved in together in September 2022 and there were still arguments. He said in July 2023 one of her brothers came to the UK and he objected to him staying with them because of 'privacy and space issues'. The court heard on July 5 Ms Akter had left after an argument and was staying with family members, who called the police saying Masum was threatening to kill himself if she did not return. Asked if he was looking for a knife to do something to himself, Masum said: 'Yes.' He later denied thoughts of self-harm when the police attended, it was said. Jurors heard Ms Akter returned and their child was born in September. Masum said after Ms Akter and their son moved following the alleged assault in November, he was 'depressed a lot'. The defendant said: 'I used to think a lot about my son. I was separated from my son and I was missing him a lot. 'I also used to think about my wife. I was thinking I hadn't done anything to her, why had she separated me from my son.' Masum said he was unable to focus on work or looking after himself and was having suicidal thoughts, adding: 'I thought if I ended my life I wouldn't struggle with this constant pain of missing them.' Masum will continue his evidence on Wednesday. He denies murdering Ms Akter but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a knife. He also denies two charges of assault, one count of making threats to kill and one charge of stalking.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Grooming gang survivor says new inquiry may bring long-awaited answers
A woman who was raped by grooming gangs at the age of 12 and turned away by police when she tried to report the abuse has said victims may finally get answers in from a national inquiry into child sexual government announced the new probe, that would compel witnesses to give evidence, after report by Baroness Casey which found "far too many" perpetrators of abuse had evaded Walker-Roberts from Oldham has been calling for ministers to launch a national inquiry after she was abused by grooming gangs in the town in the 2000s. She said victims were treated like "prostitutes, or just used goods" by authorities who failed to protect them. Ms Walker-Roberts was accused of being drunk in 2006 when she tried to report the abuse at a local police then taken into a car by two men and raped, before she was driven to homes across the town and sexually assaulted by others. 'Scripted' Her experience was at the centre of a review published in 2022, that found vulnerable children in Oldham had been failed by the police and the has chosen to waive her right to anonymity, having previously been given the alias 'Sophie' in the review to protect her was commissioned by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham as part of a series of non-statutory reviews which also included Manchester and Rochdale. In some cases, former police officers, including those in senior ranks, and council officials did not appear to give evidence when asked to Walker-Roberts said "being named and shamed" for not turning up was not justice, and compelling witnesses to appear was important. "They might not tell the truth, it might be scripted, but this is the only option we've got," Ms Walker-Roberts said. She said she had been disappointed with previous inquiries, as they all ended with authorities being "unable to take further action". "I've just accepted now that I'm not going to get any more justice, but it's not going to stop me using the platform I've built to help others get what they want."Assistant Chief Constable Steph Parker of Greater Manchester Police said the national inquiry and the "statutory powers this invokes to ensure accountability". Baroness Casey said she recommended a national statutory review because of the "reluctance" of local areas to do their own reviews. She said Oldham's was the only council which was willing to do a review when five local inquiries were Council Leader Arooj Shah said the authority recognised "the failings of the past" and was "determined not to repeat them". She also said child sexual abuse as perpetrated by people of all races and religions but authorities needed to do more to understand why the "pattern of abuse" was more prevalent in some groups of men."To say so is not racist. What is racist is to suggest that all Pakistani men are groomers or the implication, the suggestion, that any one community condones this behaviour – it does not."Baroness Casey's report found "disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds" were suspects in child grooming gangs, but the ethnicity of perpetrators was often not recorded by authorities. Ms Walker-Roberts, who has written a book about her experiences, said while she welcomed the national review, she believed Sir Kier Starmer had been "pushed into a corner" by Baroness Casey's was part of a group of victims who have met with ministers in the past six months to push for a full said until the new probe was announced on Saturday, "Labour had just not wanted to give us anything".Seven men were convicted last week of sexually exploiting two teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, between 2001 and 2006. Assistant Chief Constabl Parker said this was the second major investigation into grooming gangs in Rochdale, and meant 32 people had now been brought to justice for sex abuse offences in the said she wanted to reiterate an apology from the force "to all those who have been let down by GMP in the past". "We know we still have a way to go and are not complacent about the scale of what needs to be done."While we are demonstrably better, we will continue to stay true to our apology to those victims we have previously let down, reflecting on our progress, and act on scrutiny to further improve." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Louise Casey is right: children must be saved from grooming gangs. But the culture warriors must be ignored
Poison runs through every aspect of the grooming gang horror. Every element stirs up a particular political bile, from those pathetically vulnerable girls and their vile exploiters, to those well-chosen cases weaponised by the Tories and Faragists with no record of concern for the general plight of children in care. It's odd that the Tories should wade in so strenuously when they were in power for the vast majority of this sorry saga, provoking a stream of inquiries, which they mostly ignored. Labour thought the seven years and £187m of Alexis Jay's second inquiry quite enough. So did she, echoing Keir Starmer's preference for 'action not words', and for avoiding yet more of the analysis paralysis of the Grenfell years, the infected blood scandal and ongoing Covid inquiries, which satisfy few. A series of five local investigations was planned, starting in Oldham. Starmer sent Louise Casey to do an audit, and she has returned suggesting a novel format, with a national umbrella body to oversee local inquiries with statutory teeth to compel witnesses to come forward. 'Gotcha! U-turn!' shout Reform, the Tories and their favourable front pages, fighting in the political playground regardless of the substance. U-turns, second thoughts, listening to critics and responding to new facts are usually a good thing in governments: we could do with a few more. As for U-turns, let's not forget Boris Johnson, who called spending money on investigating child sex abuse 'spaffing money up the wall'. The Tories later made him prime minister. Casey was given a free hand to 'uncover the nature, scale and profile' of group child sexual exploitation, to root out evidence on offenders and their ethnicity. No surprise that she found plentiful cases where authorities had turned away, some for fear of being called racist. Last week's trial of seven Rochdale men of Pakistani origin told the same story: of groomers raping and drugging very young girls, and showing 'no remorse for their unforgivable actions', while officialdom also treated these children as trash. Social workers dismissed witness girl B as 'a prostitute', aged 10. Blame spreads far and wide. Those seeking a culture war weapon will find it turned back on them. A timeline in Casey's report following some 10 inquiries makes grim reading on foot-dragging police and authorities who scorned girls' stories: why was so little followed up? Labour has picked report recommendations to act upon: home secretary Yvette Cooper's order to check prematurely closed cases has already re-opened more than 800. She is asking the National Crime Agency to trace missing perpetrators and toughen local police investigations. She is wiping out child victims' criminal records for prostitution, while her 'Hillsborough law' gives public bodies a duty of candour, with the threat of criminal sanctions if they obstruct investigations. So-called consent by under-16s will not absolve men from rape. Children will get files linking fragmented information from the healthcare system, schools and social workers. The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, tells Sky that 'hundreds of people in positions of authority over the years deliberately covered this up. I think they are guilty of that criminal offence and frankly should be going to prison.' But who was the minister for crime and policing in the last government? He was. Kemi Badenoch was minister for children. Starmer stands by his accusation that politicians with new zeal for an inquiry are 'jumping on a far-right bandwagon': that it's only the race element that stirs them. Cases cross Tory and Labour councils, there have been failings all round. Every minute of Starmer's time as director of public prosecutions has been turned over, but it only shows his record as the rapid accelerator of prosecutions. The bizarre intervention of Elon Musk ignited this pile-on, with his accusation that Starmer was 'deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes', and calling Jess Phillips a 'rape genocide apologist'. Musk was fired up by Labour voting down a Badenoch amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill, calling for another inquiry: a move specifically designed to make Labour's refusal look shifty. Playing the opportunistic Westminster game, hers was a wrecking amendment to kill the whole bill – never mind that it would have knocked out a string of protections for children in care. Facts matter, but we need more of them. Casey finds that British-Pakistani men are much over-represented in some of the regional statistics that do exist for these crimes – but she also says: 'The ethnicity data collected for victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation is not sufficient to allow any conclusions to be drawn at the national level.' Both Casey and Cooper regard the figures as badly incomplete; ethnicity data was only recorded in a third of cases in the Hydrant programme, which collates police data on perpetrators and victims. That's inadequate, but here's the latest from the data that has been recorded: 83% of suspects are white, 7% Asian, 5% black. When on a radio phone-in I hear someone say this crime is 'predominantly' Pakistani, they are only repeating the kind of misinformation written by Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times this week: he calls grooming abuse 'almost exclusively Muslim (and usually Pakistani) men preying almost exclusively on young white girls'. Indeed, men of Pakistani origin in available statistics about the perpetrators, but Richard Fewkes, the director of Hydrant, says offenders broadly reflect the ethnic mix of the UK population: 'In very general terms, what we see across all group-based offending is that no particular ethnicity stands out based on population data.' He may amend that in time, but those on the frontline worry that false facts draw attention away from where most child group sex abuse happens: 57% in institutions, 26% by group sex abusers within families, and 48% by other children Be clear what is happening here. Abuse of the most vulnerable people is a matter for us all, but race is what excites the culture warriors. They show little interest in the plight of children in care. In the Tory years, the number of children in care rose from 64,400 in 2010 to 83,630 in the latest figures. Cuts to social workers, health visitors and district nurses, the loss of Sure Start and the axing of child benefits have pushed families over the edge and children into the unkind arms of the state. Can it have been anything but irony when Tories branded their children in care programme 'Stable Homes, Built on Love'? The outcomes for these children are dismal and their futures bleak, after multiple placements and rapid ejection at the age of 16, alone into isolated flats. Take just one official figure: 44% of those registered as 'children in need' are persistently absent from school. Where are they? In the clutches of bad men offering drugs and fake affection? The spending review's extra money for children in care and the children's bill's boost for kinship and foster carers will help, with strengthened support for care leavers, and a challenge to the astronomical profits made by private companies offering bad care. But will it be enough to lift the blight that has forever branded these children as no-hopers? Too early to say. But in the meantime, beware those politicians who are newly exercised by the plight of abused children – but only if the abusers are, say, Pakistani. Beware also the synthetic pity of so many who have until now ignored the state's appalling treatment of the most vulnerable children in its care. Too many are opportunists seeking grotesque advantage. Theirs are crocodile tears. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
