Welcome to Oldham Part IV
Where politicians pursue power whilst our children are locked in rooms rented out by the hour
I once worked for Oldham Council. One of the proudest days of my life was when I secured myself a job at the Council. It didn’t matter that it was only for 10 hours a week. I spread the work over 4 days and likely worked twice what they paid me. It didn’t matter, I enjoyed being there so much, I would have spent all my time there if I could. I juggled it with working in bars at weekends and volunteering in youth clubs most evenings. I always referred to the 10 hours working based out of a portacabin at the back of Turf Lane in Chadderton as my ‘real job’.
I met so many good people working at the Council. These were the people that first trained me. They shaped my thinking, humoured my naivety and focused my enthusiasm. Without them, I would not have become all that I came to be. And so it was with a mixture of regret, sadness and anger that 25 years after first working for the Council that I felt forced to ask questions of those that now led Oldham Council. What came back genuinely shocked me. The subsequent reactions of Jim McMahon MP, Sean Fielding and their Labour Party team at Oldham Council has left me in no doubt that not only is there something to see, but also that Oldham Council is in crisis. From my conversations with people in the Civic Centre, I know that people that work for Oldham Council also feel the same way.
By now people are fully aware that this is my second attempt at Part IV. I’m sure that people can make their own minds up who was responsible for taking down what I am re sharing now. This is a fast moving story and much has happened since I originally posted. Nonetheless, I think it is of value to revisit what has led us to where we are.
Welcome to Oldham: Part IV
The name Shabir ‘call me Daddy’ Ahmed will be known by everyone who has followed the Rochdale Grooming Gang scandal. What will be less known about him will be that he was both an active member of the Oldham Labour Party and an Oldham Council employee where he supported vulnerable children and their families.
Multiple ex Councillors have confirmed with me that as well as being a member of his local branch of the Labour Party, Shabir Ahmed was also a regular visitor to the parliamentary offices of the MP for Oldham West & Royton. Unknown to most Oldham people, what is now 100% indisputable, even though Oldham Council Leader, Sean Fielding, continues to dodge questions, is that Shabir Ahmed was active in Oldham. He held a job with the Council and a Cartel connected company where he had access to children, he was an active member of his Labour Party branch and was a regular visitor at his MPs office. Those of us familiar with the methods of peadophiles will know that these monsters associate themselves with powerful people through which their victims are further silenced. My understanding is that even the Police were unaware of how embedded Shabir Ahmed was in Oldham.
As stories of Asian grooming gangs spread from places ranging from Rochdale to Rotherham, there appeared to be an absence of such investigations in Oldham. Whilst multiple Oldham based groomers, including Shabir Ahmed, appeared to be conducting their filthy business in neighbouring towns, it appeared that Oldham had survived. Unfortunately, what I share with you now will suggest a very different story.
I came by this completely by accident. For those keen to attack me, please remember this was nothing that I went seeking for, nor had any prior knowledge of. I started at a place where all I wanted to do was see the dodgy activities at Oldham Central Mosque, my mosque, cleaned up. I wanted rid of Jim McMahon, the Coldhurst branch of the Labour Party and the OBA Cartel from exploiting the mosque congregation. I also wanted a convicted sex offender that Oldham Council were aware of removing from his position of Chairman of the Management Committee. It really was as simple as that.
I will start by sharing my disappointment that I am bringing this to the public’s attention. I am not a policeman, nor am I a politician, and I am most definitely not a journalist. Nor do I work in Oldham Council where knowledge of this must have existed. Make of this what you will. I gain nothing from sharing any of this.
Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts Massive Concerns
Below is an official email (dated 5th June 2013) from Haydn Roberts. Mr Roberts is a police officer of some ranking — Chief Inspector. You will see that he makes reference to a sophisticated grooming operation in Oldham.
As can be seen, Chief Inspector Roberts clearly states that this grooming operation fits a certain profile and the specifics include:
public facing shisha bars open in usually ex public houses
passing through numerous owners and operators, it becomes difficult to determine who owns the businesses
these shisha bars advertise on Facebook. Targeting young people, especially young girls, they attempt to lure them in and are promoted as for hire for ‘fresher’ type functions
the front door is locked and access given only to known faces.
they are ‘private clubs’ where rooms are available to rent by the hour
From reading this email, it is clear that multiple senior individuals in Oldham Council were fully aware of what was taking place. This includes,
the local college being briefed
a concerned father and brother storming the premises to remove the daughter
GMP receiving intelligence that an Asian heritage girl was being blackmailed into giving oral sex at one of these venues
The raising of concerns with Michael Meacher MP
Following raising this matter with the appropriate individuals in Oldham Council, including the then Leader of the Council, Jim McMahon, Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts wrote to the local MP, Michael Meacher, to make him aware of this ‘emerging safeguarding risk’.
In his role in Oldham’s Community Safety Partnership, Inspector Roberts identified a series of additional facts that Greater Manchester Police had uncovered. These included
these premises are not open to the public with locked doors and windows covered
there is intelligence to suggest that young people who access these venues are vulnerable to child sexual exploitation
this is evidenced by reports of a girl being blackmailed into giving oral sex as the offenders had photographed her in compromising positions
adult males who control or attend the premises have received MULTIPLE abduction warnings to protect individual children
children are invited and after being plied with drink and drugs are then exploited
there are multiple premises operating in Oldham under such circumstances
Here is the letter (dated 13th June 2013) from Inspector Roberts to Michael Meacher MP in full. Please note the Council and Police logos on the letterhead.
The Council’s dirty little secret
Below is an email where Inspector Roberts raises his concerns much earlier with Teresa Broadbent, Associate Assistant Director of Safeguarding & Vulnerable Children at Oldham Council. You will see that the Inspector’s concerns of risks around CSE (child sex exploitation) to be ‘massive’.
This email exchange is first dated 27th February 2013. From reading it, it is very clear that this is an ongoing issue that Oldham Council were fully aware of. The obvious question surely is,
When was the Council going to tell the parents of Oldham that grooming gangs had essentially set up shop in Oldham?
Where they were luring our children in to premises where they were likely raped and God only knows what else.
The victimisation of Cllr Hughie MacDonald
From the information I have available, it appears that a certain Councillor could not remain sat on his hands any longer. He shared the contents of Inspector Roberts email (dated 5th June 2013) with the Chairman of Positive Steps Oldham.
For those who are not aware, Positive Steps is a leading children & young person’s support agency and a key strategic partner of Oldham Council. Having spoken with key individuals and had sight of relevant documentation, it appears to me that Jim McMahon and Oldham Council were keen to manage the situation.
I believe that Cllr McDonald, also a JP for over 30 years, can only have been interested in the safeguarding of our children. From the email chain I have, he was at the very least aware of what was taking place since before Teresa Broadbent’s email on the 27th February 2013. Ms Broadbent specifically refers to Cllr McDonald’s concerns. Cllr McDonald, growing increasingly concerned, must only have gone to his colleague, Mr Fitzpatrick, Chair of Positive Steps, for support. Unfortunately, because of his actions, Paul Entwistle, the famous Borough Solicitor, contacted Cllr McDonald. Incredibly, Cllr McDonald now found himself the centre of attention rather than the actual groomers that were openly operating in our town.
The Council Solicitor and Jim McMahon, the Council Leader, decided that Cllr McDonald, through sharing this email with his close colleague and Chair of Positive Steps Oldham, to have ‘the potential to compromise an on-going police and safeguarding investigation’.
Perhaps, Cllr McDonald would not have gone to his old friend for help had the Council acted appropriately? For instance, if the local college had been made aware of these dangers, should not have all other agencies working with young people been also briefed? Especially one such as Positive Steps Oldham that supports a range of vulnerable young people. Why all the secrecy? Most importantly, why keep this threat from parents the of Oldham?
Oh and that reference to ‘compromise an on-going police investigation’. From everything that has been leaked to me, this accusation appears to come from Jim McMahon and not the Police. Have a read of Paul Entwistle’s craftily sculpted email referring to the Police concerns below. You can see it avoids making this claim. Even Jim McMahon in his email to Cllr McDonald, includes the word ‘potentially’. It appears, they were going to make an example of Cllr McDonald. His crime? In my opinion, to help safeguard our children!
Below is a copy of Paul Entwistle’s email (dated 24th June 2013). Below also is an email from Jim McMahon (dated 29th July 2013) to inform Cllr McDonald that he was going to be referred to the Labour Party’s Standards Committee for a formal investigation.
Most people will not have read about any of this in either the Oldham Evening Chronicle or the Manchester Evening News. The story of a network of ‘shisha’ bars in Oldham luring in our children to be blackmailed, groomed and sexually exploited doesn’t appear to have been newsworthy. Or perhaps there was a more sinister reasons why these stories did not make the news.
Oh, for those believing the nonsense of ‘live police investigation,' safeguarding doesn’t work that way. From the evidence shared by Inspector Roberts in these leaks it is clear that children were at risk and had already been sexually exploited. No agency, including the Police are allowed to use children as bait to catch criminals. At the first sign of a safeguarding concern, you go in (another reason why I’m angry with Oldham Council’s reluctance to intervene at Oldham Central Mosque).
The reason I believe that this story was suppressed was to protect the Oldham Labour Party. Take a guess what the profiles of the perpetrators were that frequented these shisha bars? Remember, hidden from us was information that Rochdale grooming gang ringleader, Shabir Ahmed was a Oldham Council employee and fully paid member of Oldham Labour Party. How many of the perpetrators also had allegiances with Oldham Labour Party or were Labour Party voters?
The role of the BBC
In my opinion, and based on my experience, I think this cover up in Oldham was no different to the cover up in Rotherham. And yes, I say all of this as a member of the Labour Party myself who has directly worked with both recent Labour Prime Ministers. Still have doubts this story was suppressed? What about the BBC? Remember, this was 2013. Jimmy Savile had only been exposed by ITV in November 2012 and the BBC had their own problems. Below is an email (dated 7th August 2013) from the BBC journalist, Kevin Fitzpatrick.
From reading it, you can clearly see that an exchange has taken place between himself and Jim McMahon, at the time Leader of Oldham Council and now MP for Oldham West & Royton. Mr Fitzpatrick appears to be apologetic in his tone and is keen to finish the email assuring Jim McMahon that,
‘I want to make it clear that when I said I would stop pursuing the CSE story about the private clubs that is what I did…I feel that my integrity is being questioned….would be very disappointed if YOUR misunderstanding damaged the trust between us.’
Have a good read of this email. You’ll see something that just doesn’t stack up. From what I’ve shared so far, Inspector Roberts and Teresa Broadbent, Associate Assistant Director of Safeguarding & Vulnerable Children at Oldham Council both seem to be very clear on what has gone on. Oldham Community Safety Service (the partnership between multiple agencies including the Council and the Police) were clear of what had taken place and had contacted the MP, Michael Meacher, attempting to get the law changed!
Jim McMahon’s ‘very limited’ knowledge
There was no doubt of what had taken place or the severity of this. Yet here we have Jim McMahon appearing to have put pressure on a BBC journalist not to run with the story claiming that knowledge was ‘very limited’.
‘Despite contacts in the Asian community confirming to me [Kevin Fitzpatrick] that there was concern about young people going into these clubs…we agreed not to broadcast anything after YOU told us that knowledge about the activities at these clubs was very limited and you were concerned about tensions in the town ahead of Lee Rigby’s funeral.’
It would not be the first time that what a Politician claims has ZERO resemblance to reality. This dossier of evidence clearly shows Oldham Council, including its then Leader, Jim McMahon, was fully aware that our children were being lured, piled with drink and drugs, blackmailed and sexually assaulted in a network of shisha bars operating in Oldham town centre. From an analysis of emails leaked to me prior to this date that Jim McMahon and Oldham Council had written and/or received, the ‘very limited’ knowledge that Oldham Council included
• these shisha bars advertise on Facebook. Targeting young people, especially young girls, they attempt to lure them in and are promoted as for hire for ‘fresher’ type functions
• these premises are not open to the public with locked doors and windows covered
• they are ‘private clubs’ where rooms are available to rent by the hour
• the local college being briefed of the safeguarding concern
• aware that a concerned father and brother storming the premises to remove the daughter
• GMP receiving intelligence that an Asian heritage girl was being blackmailed into giving oral sex at one of these venues
• Inspector Haydn Roberts had already written to the local MP, Michael Meacher to make him aware of this ‘emerging safeguarding risk’.
• there is intelligence to suggest that young people who access these venues are vulnerable to child sexual exploitation
• this is evidenced by reports of a girl being blackmailed into giving oral sex as the offenders had photographed her in compromising positions
• adult males who control or attend the premises have received MULTIPLE abduction warnings to protect individual children
• children are invited and after being plied with drink and drugs are then exploited
• there are multiple premises operating in Oldham under such circumstances
• the Police Chief Inspector’s concerns around risks around CSE to be, in his own words, ‘MASSIVE’.
This is just some of the evidence. I think that it makes a mockery of Jim McMahon’s use of the term of having ‘very limited knowledge’.
When Jim McMahon and Oldham Council were made aware of these ‘private clubs’ (in the right and proper ways), instead of informing parents to be vigilant and inform their children, Jim McMahon in this exchange with a BBC reporter in addition to his ‘limited knowledge’ even attempted to keep this story out of the news because of ‘Lee Rigby’s funeral.’
An emerging scandal
Jim McMahon MP is at the centre of this scandal and from reading the BBC journalist’s email, appears to be clearly implicated in attempting to keep this story away from parents. Read the email from the BBC reporter addressed to Jim McMahon and tell me that you think differently. Attempting to use the funeral of Lee Rigby. I’m not sure how much lower you go get.
In Rotherham, the official government enquiry found that the Asian grooming gangs had been ignored for fear of damaging ‘community relations’. Now what does this quote above read like?
Read the documents i’ve shared In full and decide for yourself if you think that Jim McMahon, whilst Leader of Oldham Council, suppressed stories of child sexual exploitation.
Cllr McDonald was the only person that tried to speak out. For speaking out he was punished by Jim McMahon. He was actually never taken to the Labour Party Standards Committee. Whilst suspended, he was unable to stand for re-election. His Alexandra Ward seat was contested and won by an Asian candidate. To the best of my knowledge, there were no arrests or convictions of anyone associated with these private clubs.
Having now had access to this information, I am not at all surprised that Oldham Council has ignored the safeguarding concerns at Oldham Central Mosque. My obvious question is, if they covered it up in 2013 and appear to help still covering it up now, where else may it have been covered up?
I’m told that Jim McMahon and his Oldham Labour Party associates believe that I have a vendetta. They are right. I do have a vendetta though not for the reasons that they would like people to believe. My vendetta is that because of them, I believe that democracy in Oldham is broken and that we live in a town where even our children for them are fair game. I was once taught that a society is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable members. In Oldham it seems, that regardless of our children being White or Asian, they are pawns to be sacrificed.
Following the original publication of Welcome to Oldham Part IV, Oldham Council Leader, Sean Fielding has issued two statements. His Deputy, Arooj Shah, has also stood in the Council Chamber and attacked what I have shared. Sean Fielding, after the original strategy of claiming the evidence was false, has claimed that most of what I have shared was already in the public domain. The truth is that it was not.
Oldham Council are currently busy trying to pull together a so called ‘independent investigation’ that they oversee. The Police have also launched their own investigation. Hughie MacDonald has come forward with additional evidence of the grooming and sexual exploitation of vulnerable white girls in Oldham care homes by Asian men.
Jim McMahon, now MP of Oldham, has so far, refused to comment about either his ‘very limited knowledge’ or the use of Lee Rigby’s funeral to keep from parents news of grooming gangs targeting Oldham’s children.
I have consequently formally written to the Labour Party raising a complaint towards Jim McMahon MP. My complaint is that he was aware of the grooming gangs operating in Oldham during the period her was Labour Leader of Oldham Council and that he attempted to cover this up and keep it from the parents of our town. I believe that such actions placed more children at risk. I am not surprised by the Labour Party’s reluctance to open an investigation.
From my experiences from both these failures where Oldham Council has in my opinion failed in their duty to safeguard our children, I’m left with the firm belief that maintaining community relations (commonly considered code for protecting Asian votes) is more important than protecting our children.
Raja Miah MBE
Details of Evidence used
The evidence I have used for the Shisha Sexploitation Scandal is all official correspondence involving Oldham Council. It includes exchanges between a Senior Police Officer, the then Leader of Oldham Council, Jim McMahon and other senior members of his Cabinet as well as Senior Council Officers including the then Chief Executive, Charlie Parker and the current Chief Executive, Carolyn Wilkins. There’s also a letter addressed to the MP Michael Meacher that is stamped as received by his parliamentary office.
It would not have been possible to bring this story in to the public domain without copies of these official documents from Oldham Council, Greater Manchester Police, the BBC and from the office of Michael Meacher (former MP for Oldham West & Royton). What I have used for the purposes of this article is only a small selection of the information that has been leaked to me. I am grateful to the brave individuals that have sacrificed their careers and have placed their lives at risk to help safeguard the children of our town.
My understanding is that representatives of Oldham Council, including the new Council Leader, Sean Fielding, is threatening to sue brave individuals in Oldham that are daring to share this story and ask questions. Rest assured, my entire dossier of evidence will be made available to any individuals that find themselves in front of the Courts.
Below is the details of the evidence I have used in this story specific to the network of shisha bars used to groom and sexually exploit our children. I’m told that supporters of Jim McMahon and Oldham’s Labour Council are claiming that my evidence is falsified.
I think that falsifying these 6 documents, that contain over 20 different names with people from at least 4 different organisations would be some mean trick that could be easily disproven. I’ll let people decide if these documents are falsified.
1. Email from Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts to multiple Council Officers and Councillors including Cllr J Stretton, Neil Crabtree, Cllr S Akhtar, Colette Kelly, Bruce Penhale, Carolyn Wilkins, Elaine McLean and Cllr Jim McMahon. Cc’d into the email is Cllr H McDonald, Andy Searle and Susan Harrison
The subject of this email is ‘Shisha’ and it is dated 5th June 2013 at 08.48
2. A copy of a letter from Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts. This letter is dated 13th June 2013. On Community Safety Unit letterheaded paper with both Oldham Council and Police logos, this letter is stamped to have been received on 14th June 2013. This letter was sent to the MP Michael Meacher. There is handwriting on the letter. This reads ‘Michael this is worth pursuing + looking out for as it has a lot of relevance in Oldham’. This 2 page letter is signed by Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts.
3. Email correspondence between Teresa Broadbent, Associate Assistant Director at Oldham Council and Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts.
The date and time Ms Broadbent sent her email is 27th February 2013 at 16.16
Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts response is dated 14th March 2013 at 10.15
4. Email correspondence between Cllr Hugh McDonald and Paul Entwistle, the Borough Solicitor.
The date and time Cllr McDonald sent his email is 24th June 2013 at 07.50
The date and time of Paul Entwistle’s reply was 24th June 2013 at 17.16
5. Email from Cllr Jim McMahon to Paul Entwistle and the then Chief Executive of Oldham Council, Charlie Parker. This email also cc’s Tony Lloyd in his capacity as Police & Crime Commissioner as well as Cllr Briggs and Cllr Brownridge
The email is dated 29th July 2013 and was sent at 22.08
6. Email from Kevin Fitzpatrick of the BBC to Jim McMahon. There are multiple people cc’d into this email including Cllrs Stretton, Akhtar & McDonald. Other recipients include Stefan Jarmolowicz of GM Police and individuals named Carl Marsden, Jamie Whitehouse, Michelle Daniel