Here is a link to the report on Operation Augusta which was published on 14th January 2020. It is only part 1 as the review of the Greater Manchester police and social services continues.
There are 3 key findings:
- There was clear evidence that professionals at the time were aware these young people were being sexually exploited, and that this was generally perpetrated by a group of older Asian men. There was significant information known at the time about their names, their locations and telephone numbers but the available evidence was not used to pursue offenders.
- Perpetrators appeared to be operating in “plain sight”, hanging around in cars outside care homes and foster homes and returning young people to their care addresses.
- A key concern was that the focus of the multi-agency strategy meetings was on agencies encouraging young people to protect themselves rather than providing protection for them. There was very little evidence from the social care files of the deployment of disruption strategies to protect the young people.