Conduct referral from mayoral review to child sexual exploitation across Greater Manchester – Greater Manchester Police, September 2017
In September 2017, following a BBC broadcast about child sexual exploitation (CSE) within the Greater Manchester area, the mayor of Greater Manchester commissioned a review, known as the mayoral review, to explore the current and potential future delivery model of the response to CSE across Greater Manchester.
The terms of reference for the review included looking at a decision taken by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to close Operation Augusta; this was a joint agency investigation between GMP and Manchester City Council (MCC) Social Services. The investigation was established in early 2004 in response to concerns raised that a group of men of Asian heritage from the South Manchester area were targeting young, vulnerable girls who were resident in local authority care homes with the intention of sexual exploitation. Subsequently, Operation Augusta identified 26 persons under the age of 18 who were believed to be potential victims of CSE, perpetrated predominantly by adult Asian men. The operation was closed in July 2005.
Part one of the mayoral review examined Operation Augusta and the decision to close it. A report on the review's findings was published in January 2020. The report identified fundamental flaws in how Operation Augusta was resourced which impacted the investigation. The decision to close Operation Augusta was said to be driven by the decision of senior officers to remove the resources from the investigation rather than a sound understanding as to whether all lines of enquiry had been successfully completed.
Following a conduct referral from GMP on 11 February 2020 in relation to three former senior officers, discussions were held between GMP and the IOPC to seek further and more detailed information regarding the referral. As a result of these discussions, the IOPC commenced an independent investigation on 13 August 2020.The officers were treated as witnesses throughout our investigation, as there was no indication of conduct from the evidence which on their part if proved, would amount to misconduct or gross misconduct. This remained under review throughout the investigation.
During our investigation, we interviewed a number of witnesses, including serving and former GMP officers who had worked on Operation Augusta. We also interviewed former senior members of staff from MCC Social Services. We obtained accounts from former senior GMP officers who were identified as being part of the decision-making process to initially resource and then conclude Operation Augusta. Despite significant efforts, we were unable to find evidence as to who took the decision to ultimately close Operation Augusta, nor the rationale for doing so. We were able to find evidence that despite the operation being closed, arrangements were put in place for the future safeguarding of those identified as survivors of CSE.
Similar to the Mayoral review, we were unable to locate evidence relating to minutes of meetings and documented key decisions to close Operation Augusta. Not all former officers we identified as potential witnesses were either able to, or chose not to engage with our independent investigation.
In May 2022, we reviewed the available evidence, and we determined there was no indication that any of the three former officers referred to us had conducted themselves in a manner, which if proven, would amount to misconduct or gross misconduct. This left us with no legal basis to proceed with the investigation and it was therefore discontinued on 20 July 2022.
We identified several key areas of potential organisational learning for GMP to consider in relation to mandatory CSE awareness training for officers, better record keeping and retention, improved review of investigations and decision making and improved resourcing of investigations. We continue to engage and consult with the force on these areas to understand what has changed in the intervening years to inform whether we issue any learning recommendations to impact positive change.