Social workers in Oldham first raised concerns about grooming gangs in 2003, noting that girls from children's homes were repeatedly going missing and being harboured by the same men. By 2006, the problem had escalated, with one victim—referred to as Child X—being abused by 300 men by the age of 14 after first being targeted while truanting at 12.
Ruth Baldwin, then executive director for young people and families at Oldham council, warned in December 2006 that the scale of the problem was far greater than teenage relationships, involving men in their 20s, 30s, and older. The council launched Operation Messenger, a multi-agency taskforce that won a police award, but a 2022 safeguarding review found the quality of casework was 'generally very poor' and failed to protect children at risk of significant harm.
The review found no evidence of a cover-up by the Labour-led council to protect its vote among the Muslim population, but it acknowledged that a nervousness about race hampered the response. A 2011 police memo highlighted the challenge of addressing sexual exploitation without fuelling the far right, particularly in a town still scarred by the 2001 race riots.
In January 2025, a media storm erupted after safeguarding minister Jess Phillips refused to fund a statutory inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, prompting Elon Musk to call for her imprisonment. The controversy forced the government to commission a national inquiry into grooming gangs, which will examine how ethnicity, religion, and culture influenced official responses.
