Protecting Pakistani Rape Gangs: A Masterclass in How Institutions Hide Their Failures
Here's what everyone gets wrong about institutional investigations: They think the goal is to uncover the truth. It's not. The goal is to appear to uncover truth while protecting reputations.
I just spent hours analysing Greater Manchester's Independent Assurance Review into child exploitation in Oldham. What I found wasn't just disturbing – it was a masterclass in bureaucratic misdirection.
Let me show you how this works.
First, you start with a prestigious investigator: Malcolm Newsam, CBE. You give him an impressive title: Independent Reviewer. You have the Mayor, Andy Burnham, commission the review personally.
Then you deploy the first sleight of hand:
You praise the strategic approach while admitting operational failures. The review called Oldham's child protection strategy "ahead of many local authorities." Then in the same breath, detailed how it failed to protect children year after year.
Here's where it gets interesting.
The review claimed a "robust approach" to tackling exploitation in shisha bars between 2011-2014. Yet in the very next sentence, admitted children were being exploited in these same bars throughout 2011, 2012, and 2013.
See the pattern? See how every admission of failure is cushioned between praise. Every damning finding is wrapped in bureaucratic language that dulls its impact.
But here's what should shock you:
Out of 11,000 safeguarding referrals during the timeframe of the review, they examined just ten. All ten revealed significant failures. All ten showed children were failed by the system.
Think about that for a second. They sampled ten cases. Found a 100% failure rate. And still concluded there wasn't "widespread" exploitation.
The truth reveals itself in the details:
- A 12-year-old girl named Sophie failed by police and council
- A convicted grooming gang leader who worked for the council for 18 years
- A whistleblower punished for trying to protect children
- Seven years of "serious multiple failures" to stop the ringleader of the Rochdale Grooming Gang - Shabir Ahmed.
But perhaps the most telling detail was this:
The review admitted authorities had "legitimate concerns" about how prosecuting Pakistani offenders might affect community relations. They buried this admission in bureaucratic language, but the implication was clear: political considerations influenced child protection decisions.
Here's what nobody wants to say out loud:
This wasn't just a failure of child protection. It was a failure of courage. A failure of leadership. A failure to put children's safety above political convenience.
The final irony? Mayor Burnham was recently forced to admit his review was "limited" – after initially praising it as "thorough" and "helping restore public confidence."
The lesson here isn't just about child protection. It's about how institutions protect themselves. How they use language to obscure reality. How they craft narratives that acknowledge just enough truth to maintain credibility while burying the most damaging details in bureaucratic doublespeak.
But most importantly, it's about this:
When institutions investigate themselves, they're not looking for the truth. They're looking for plausible deniability. This is why we need a Public Inquiry. This is why we cannot allow Arooj Shah's quick to cry far right, Pakistani gangster endorsed council to investigate itself.
The next time someone dismisses concerns about institutional failures in protecting children as conspiracy theories, remember Oldham. Remember how the review itself acknowledged that authorities had "legitimate concerns" about how prosecuting offenders might affect community relations. Remember how a 100% failure rate in sample cases somehow didn't indicate "widespread" problems. Remember how "robust approaches" coincided with years of continued exploitation, while officials worried more about political sensitivities than protecting vulnerable young girls.
Because that's how politics is played in Labour Party controlled towns like Oldham where the all powerful Muslim block vote determines who wins and loses. The question is: are we willing to keep playing it when children's lives are at stake?
Raja Miah MBE
If you are following the story on the grooming gangs it is because I have sacrificed six years of my life campaigning for justice. My name is Raja Miah MBE. In a past life, I advised government on how to safeguard children and protect communities from extremism. Queen Elizabeth II put a medal on my chest for my services to our nation.
To this day, Greater Manchester Police continue to protect those attempting to silence me whilst the mainstream media campaign to discredit me. My crime? Refusing to look the other way to the gang rape of my town’s children.
Everything we have exposed has been 100% community funded. I need your support. Without your help, this fight will end, and they will win.
If you believe in what we’ve achieved together, please subscribe to my newsletter, Red Wall and the Rabble. It starts from just 75p a week.
If you can’t commit to a subscription, please consider making a one-off contribution.
👉 https://BuyMeACoffee.com/recusantnine
👉 https://paypal.me/RecusantNine
Please stand with me. I cannot do this without you.
Raja 🙏