‘I’m worried about dying before I find out the truth’

Survivors have spoken of their ‘relief and pride’ after council bosses voted to demand an inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham – but some fear they may not live to see discover the truth.

The town hall is already preparing a ‘Telford-style’ inquiry, which would receive financial support from the government.

Statutory powers would give the review the power to compel authorities to provide evidence and give witness statements. 

A previous GMCA-led inquiry relied on the GMP and council’s voluntary cooperation.

The report notes that a number of documents could not be retrieved for a variety of reasons including open cases and data protection, and there are fears the new local inquiry could be subject to the same limitations. 

One survivor, who goes by the name Amelia, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Finally the different councillors and political groups are starting to take note of what we want.

"We’re not backing down. We’re not being quiet.

“I think they know that the combined effort of the survivors and everyone who’s backing us is not going to go away. 

“We need a statutory inquiry so evidence and witnesses can be compelled, otherwise it’s pointless.

"I’ll continue to fight the home office until we get that.” 

But she added that she was ‘not willing to wait’ for the review process to start.  

“We want them to start soon,” Amelia said.

“Girls and boys are dying without having their cases sorted out.

"People think this is a game but it’s not.

"We wake up every morning and we live and breathe this stuff. It’s our lives they’re talking about in these chambers.”

Sarah, mother to one of the abuse victims who passed away of a cardiac arrest aged just 28, added she’d been ‘unable to grieve’ while she waits for her son’s court case and the inquiry to conclude. 

“I’m worried about dying myself before it gets to the inquiry,” she said.

“I’m relieved they voted it through.

"Let’s just hope the home office lets it through.” 

Sarah’s son Zak wasn’t included in the GMCA-led review because his abuse took place in 2007, but the inquiry only looked at cases between 2011 to 2014.

Zak never saw his perpetrator taken to court.

And Theresa worries his abuser, now elderly, could pass away before he sees any jailtime.

Both Sarah and Amelia pointed out that the national narrative has been ‘too narrow’ – dividing the issue into ‘Pakistani grooming gangs’ and ‘white working class girls’ when cases were much more varied. 

Some of the survivors have been supported by Lucia Rea, a former councillor who helped put the CSE issue on the council’s agenda more than six years ago and has been calling for ‘more specialist support’ for victims 

Speaking of the meeting, Rea said it was ‘nice to see sense being spoken’ after years of ‘toxicity’ in the town’s politics. 

“The CSE issue should not wear a rosette,” she said.

"“It should be colourless. 

“If councillors showed more togetherness on emotive subjects like this, they would take out a lot of the toxicity that we see in the town, especially on social media.” 

Lucia added she wanted to see ‘much more specialist support’ for CSE abuse survivors.

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