EXCLUSIVE: Manchester child abuse review team RESIGN after police ‘block’ access, whistleblower claims

In a statement last week, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said that His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) will lead the final instalment of review to assess improvements made by police and councils.

The authority said that the review will assess if Greater Manchester Police and councils have the “right culture and systems in place to protect children from sexual exploitation.”

The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham thanked Mr Ridgway and Mr Newsam for their service over the last seven years.

He added: “Their determination, integrity, and absolute dedication to this task enabled us to uncover and face up to the serious failings of the services that were supposed to protect our children.”

But police whistleblower Maggie Oliver, who exposed the child exploitation scandal in Rochdale, has claimed that the two reviewers resigned due to being “blocked” from accessing documents and speaking to some survivors.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority said this allegation was “inaccurate.”

A spokesperson told GB News that “while discussion had been ongoing for some months with the Independent Review Team to attempt to finalise a data sharing agreement, Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service expressed concerns about the risk to investigations and potential prosecutions if information about live cases was shared.”

Maggie Oliver said that last week’s announcement of HMICFRS taking over the investigation avoided the “real truth” of why the review team resigned.

“I’m afraid this public announcement conceals the real truth of this situation, and it is clearly a public relations exercise intended to present a very ‘one sided’ version in this complex situation of what has been delays, prevarications and obstruction,” she Mrs Oliver.

She added: “The reality is that after 18 months of being ‘blocked’ by GMP at every turn, from examining police documents and even legal teams being brought in to prevent the independent review team from speaking to survivors, they finally resigned.”

GB News understands that both reviewers resigned last month.

Maggie Oliver said: “They were being denied any access to even the policy books covering the period since the Augusta review in 2020, and Gary and Malcolm finally felt they were left with no choice other than to hand in their resignation, albeit very reluctantly.”

This broadcaster was also told that both Mr Newsam and Mr Ridgway provided appendices to their resignation letter, which included lines of enquiry that had reportedly been blocked.

One of the reviewers confirmed to GB News that they had resigned and that they “gave our reasons for doing so in a resignation letter submitted to GMCA.”

They said they would not share the letter and that they would not comment further on Mrs Oliver’s claims.

The review team had previously delivered three highly critical reviews of historic multi-agency failures by public bodies in Greater Manchester.

Their most recent report, published in January, found that police failed to sufficiently investigate child exploitation in Rochdale from 2004 to 2013, ignoring warnings from whistleblowers.

Kelly, a survivor who was engaged with the assurance review, told GB News that she was disappointed that Mr Ridgway and Mr Newsam had left the team.

“Unfortunately Maggie has made me aware that the assurance review is no longer being done by Malcolm and Gary.

“This really saddens me that they’ve resigned due to the police not giving them documentation.

“I felt like I had loads of faith in them after the Operation Augusta review.”

Kelly added that she was not directly informed about the change.

“I feel really gutted that I was not informed earlier. No one has contacted me to let me know that they weren’t doing it anymore.

“I feel let down, we need an explanation from the mayor as to why they have got new people in.”

In response to Maggie Oliver’s allegations, a Greater Manchester Combined Authority spokesperson said: “Shortly after taking office in 2017, the Mayor of Greater Manchester set up a review to look at both historic issues in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale, as well as a final stage looking at current arrangements and whether the Greater Manchester public could have confidence in them.

“Following the publication of the Rochdale report, the Mayor expressed concerns that a non-statutory process exposed challenges in accessing all of the relevant information, and for that reason worked with the Deputy Mayor to set up a strengthened process of enquiry led by statutory regulators.

"We are grateful to the independent review team, whose work has uncovered serious historic issues. We are confident the arrangements for the final phase will give people in Greater Manchester confidence that a rigorous and comprehensive review, supported by access to all the information necessary, will be undertaken.

“To achieve this, the Mayor has commissioned His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to work with OFSTED and other statutory bodies to provide independent assurance of the whole system in place across the different agencies in Greater Manchester, to ensure they work effectively to safeguard children and to bring offenders to justice. This will be a large and complex piece of work which the inspectorates have the necessary resources and statutory powers to carry out.

“It is inaccurate to suggest that the Independent Review Team has been blocked for 18 months and that lawyers were brought in for that purpose. While discussion had been ongoing for some months with the Independent Review Team to attempt to finalise a data sharing agreement, Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service expressed concerns about the risk to investigations and potential prosecutions if information about live cases was shared.

“Both organisations ultimately bear the responsibility for the success of investigations and prosecutions, and we have had to carefully consider their concerns. We would not want to jeopardise future prosecutions in any way, particularly when justice for those involved in these investigations has already been denied for far too long.

“The Independent Review Team made helpful suggestions to us for alternative public bodies that could conduct a review process. HMICFRS’s statutory powers to access information removes the need for a data sharing agreement, and the Mayor has accepted the Independent Review Team’s resignation so that these statutory bodies can deliver the wider assurance report he now seeks. The lines of inquiry suggested by the Independent Review Team have been shared with HMICFRS for consideration as part of their review.”