Who is Sara Rowbotham? Sexual health worker who exposed the Rochdale grooming scandal
FORMER sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham is the whistleblower who exposed the sickening extent of the Rochdale child grooming scandal.
Here’s the lowdown on the crisis worker whose story will be featured on Betrayed Girls...
Who is Sara Rowbotham?
Sara Rowbotham worked as Rochdale Crisis Intervention Team co-ordinator from 2004 to 2014.
The front-line sexual health worker was tasked with identifying young people vulnerable to sex exploitation.
Ms Rowbotham claimed she repeatedly raised concerns about dozens of young girls at risk in Rochdale, but was ignored by her managers, the police and other agencies.
She gave damning evidence at the MP-led inquiry into the child sex ring in 2012 telling the inquiry that Rochdale council’s social services team for children missed 181 chances to stop young girls being groomed for sex.
She became depressed and ill through the stress of fighting to get her voice heard and was made redundant from her senior role in the team in 2014.
Ms Rowbotham is now a Labour councillor for Rochdale Borough Council and is starting her life again after years of working on stressful cases.
She appeared on Channel 4's First Dates looking for love, and told her date she is looking forward; "[To be] able to have nice times and not be so stressed or worried or anxious or angry. To be carefree."
What was the Rochdale child sex abuse ring?
The exposure of the grooming, sexual assault and trafficking of young girls in Rochdale was made public in 2012.
The Guardian reports how it resulted in the conviction of nine men for offences including rape on girls as young as 13 between 2005 and 2008.
Sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham spent years trying to get police, the council and social workers to take the grooming seriously.
When the probe was eventually resumed and the gang was jailed police, Crown prosecutors and Rochdale Council were forced to apologise for their failings.
The men – aged between 24 and 59- preyed on teen girls plying with them booze and drugs in the Heywood area of Rochdale.
It eventually resulted in the conviction of nine men for serious sexual offences, including rape and human trafficking, inflicted on girls as young as 13 between 2005 and 2008.
The Rochdale Safeguarding Children Board highlighted failures by 17 agencies who were meant to protect the children.
What did Ms Rowbotham tell the Rochdale inquiry?
Ms Rowbotham told the 2012 inquiry bosses ignored scores of warnings that girls were being groomed and sexually exploited as early as 2004 – four years earlier than previously thought.
The sexual health worker, who led an NHS crisis team, said she made 181 referrals for young people between 2005 and 2011.
But at the time of the inquiry she said she was only aware of nine prosecutions.
She said: “We were making referrals from 2004, very explicit referrals, referrals which absolutely highlighted for protective services that young people were incredibly vulnerable.
“It was unfortunate that it was about attitudes towards teenagers. It was absolute disrespect that vulnerable young people did not have a voice.
“They were overlooked, they were discriminated against. They were treated appallingly by protective services.
“I told everybody these children were being abused. As far as I’m concerned, I told everybody.”
Who played Ms Rowbotham in Three Girls?
Actress Maxine Peake played Ms Rowbotham in the BBC drama Three Girls.
You may recognise her from her roles in Silk, Little Dorrit, Shameless and The Theory of Everything.
Speaking about her part, Peake said: “It’s horrifying the way Sara was treated because she was the whistleblower who highlighted the problem.
“No-one was interested in helping these girls in a vulnerable situation.”
