Campaigners say victims of sexual offences are still "routinely" treated badly despite claims from police that many improvements have already been made as a result of the grooming scandal in Rochdale. A new report into the case says there were "serious failures" to protect children.
Operation Span was hailed as "a fantastic result for British justice".
On the face of it, it was a success; in 2010 an investigative team had turned things around after a failed investigation into a grooming gang in the south of Manchester, Operation Augusta, and by May 2012 with renewed vigour had convicted nine men for serious sexual offences against children in the Rochdale area.
And yet almost immediately there were serious questions about whether this new Greater Manchester Police (GMP) investigation had also fallen short.
Six months after the convictions, a detective who had worked on Operation Span, Maggie Oliver, resigned and turned whistleblower.
She claimed the investigation was curtailed; allegations by key witnesses were not investigated, and numerous more abusers remained at large. She said some alleged abusers hadn't even been questioned by the police.
One victim - known as Amber - said 20 to 30 men abused her and was able to positively identify eight out of 10 of her abusers in the first of three planned identification parades.
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