The Grooming Gangs Reckoning

The Grooming Gangs Reckoning

Update: 2025-07-15
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Left to right: Michelle Wheatley, Maggie Oliver, Julie Bindel & Sally Chatterton

For decades, the victims of Britain’s grooming gangs were criminalised instead of the perpetrators. And despite national enquiries and public condemnation, the abuse of young girls persists in the UK. What went so wrong and what can be done to stop it?

Join UnHerd for an exclusive screening of ‘Amber’, a short film telling the story of one victim, in her own words. Following the film’s preview, UnHerd Editor Sally Chatterton will moderate a live Q&A with Maggie Oliver, a former detective who resigned from Greater Manchester Police to reveal the cover-up of the Rochdale grooming gangs, campaigner and columnist Julie Bindel and director Michelle Wheatley.

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You can watch the short film, and the first part of the panel discussion here (free to all), or, for Unherd subscribers, here it is in full.

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Mohammed Zahid, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on 14 January, 2025

My investigation, for Unherd, into the scandal, is here.

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The Grooming Gangs Reckoning

The Grooming Gangs Reckoning

Julie Bindel