A whistleblower who resigned from Greater Manchester Police has told Sky News the force's child protection investigation unit where she worked is "not fit for purpose" and that failures have left a paedophile ring at large for at least seven years.
In her resignation letter last year, she said: "I don't feel like we're making things better for these kids. In fact, I think we're making it worse."
She also said that her work with the victims only served to "re-traumatise them" and "leave them hanging."
Assigned a major operation into child sex offenders in Manchester in 2022, the detective constable we are calling "Lucy" says failures could have allowed the continuation of what she says "professionals have called some of the worst abuse they've ever seen."
She first noticed a problem when she picked up the investigation and realised there had been two previous complaints involving the same suspects and other children, dating back to 2018. One where the case had been closed.
She told Sky News: "A lot of the professional material such as children's records, medical records and school records had not been requested, had not been read because if they had, they would say that many of the children had reported multiple disclosures of sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect and psychological torture."
The 2018 case was reopened. Lucy realised she was leading a complex investigation with very young victims, whose trust she needed to gain, but says she was managing numerous caseloads...
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