Press Release The Maggie Oliver Foundation - Baird Inquiry

FOUNDER AND CHAIR OF THE MAGGIE OLIVER FOUNDATION, WHISTLE BLOWING FORMER DETECTIVE, MAGGIE OLIVER, ISSUES STATEMENT ON BAIRD INQUIRY INTO UNLAWFUL STRIP SEARCHES IN GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE CUSTODY 

Today the findings of the Baird Inquiry looking into the use of strip searches of vulnerable people in the custody of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are published.  Charity, The Maggie Oliver Foundation, was instrumental in publicly highlighting the use of these illegal strip searches and has, for almost a year, been accompanying a number of individuals as they gave evidence to the Inquiry.  Its founder and chair, former GMP detective and whistle-blower, Maggie Oliver, says:

“Another day, another damning indictment of one of the country’s largest police forces.  Dame Vera Baird’s explosive report reveals a shocking disregard for rights of those coming into contact with the criminal justice system.  It would be easy to dismiss her findings as relating to only those who break the law and end up in police custody, however, Dame Vera has discovered that half of the 15 arrests covered by her review were, in fact, illegal, so those individuals should never have been in police custody in the first instance.  

Many of those arrested were vulnerable women and we say that this constitutes a very serious abuse of power.  That’s before we even consider the degrading treatment which all participants in the review were subjected to at the hands of police officers, including illegal and baseless strip searches and even being denied basics such as toilet paper and essential medication.

When you layer on the fact that four out of the five people who we at The Maggie Oliver Foundation supported to share their experiences, had previously reported to GMP that they had been victims of sexual violence, this portrays a very disturbing picture of the police officers in whom we, the public, place our trust.

While the findings detailed in the report are shocking, they are sadly not a surprise given what we see every day in our work at The Maggie Oliver Foundation, and it is one of the reasons I set up the Foundation over 5 years ago.  It is no secret that police accountability and the complaints system are both in desperate need of a radical root and branch overhaul.  The chain of events leading to this report demonstrates clearly how a broad range of individuals and organisations need to pull together to drive this change, each acknowledging the importance of each other’s role.

We are grateful to everyone who, alongside us, has contributed to bringing these issues into public view.  Firstly, the brave individuals who have relived their harrowing experiences in order to expose the truth.  We increasingly see our role at The Maggie Oliver Foundation as being a place where isolated and vulnerable victims can come to be heard, and we then are able to spot patterns and trends which would otherwise remain hidden.  Therefore, we acted early last summer when we first spotted a concerning pattern of arrests and strip searches of vulnerable survivors of sexual violence within GMP, but more specifically in one GMP custody suite, Pendleton, women we had already been supporting for two years.

We are grateful to Jason Farrell and the team at Sky News for their committed journalism, investigating these cases further and then publicly exposing these concerns.  We commend the Mayor of Greater Manchester for ordering the inquiry after seeing this Sky News exposé.  We would also like to thank Dame Vera for doing such a thorough job and not shying away from some very difficult truths.

The final crucial part of real change happening is a willingness to act from those who have the power to make change happen.  Unfortunately, what I have witnessed in the last two decades has taught me to hope for the best, but to expect the worst.  This is because all too often I have heard from those at the top that “lessons have been learned”, and yet see recommendations are then routinely ignored.  I have now been involved in too many of these inquiries, where catastrophic failings have been revealed, yet little or no real action taken.  

In the cases of the reviews into child sexual exploitation in south Manchester (Operation Augusta), Oldham and Rochdale (Operation Span), it was easy for GMP to claim that the failings uncovered were a thing of the past, given these were reviews of historic investigations taking place from 2005 to 2015.  Dame Baird’s inquiry however paints a torrid picture of today’s GMP.  As does the force’s attitude to the final part of the Assurance Review commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

This final stage was due to monitor improvements made in Greater Manchester Councils and GMP, to provide assurance that councils and police have taken action following the above-mentioned reviews, and put in place the right culture and better systems to protect children from sexual exploitation and ensure “failures of the past” are not being repeated .  

On Friday afternoon however, the Mayor quietly announced that the police inspectorate, HMICFRS supported by statutory bodies, including Ofsted, will now replace the independent review team who have lead the other reviews over a period of almost seven years.  I’m afraid that this public announcement to me is just ‘spin’ and conceals the real truth of this situation.  The reality is that after 18 months of being repeatedly “blocked” by GMP at every turn, the original trusted review team, Gary Ridgeway and Malcom Newson, finally felt they had no choice other than to hand in their resignation as they were being consistently denied access to documents, policy books and even being told survivors could not be interviewed to speak of their experiences over the past 5 years.  These facts are being concealed from the public and it makes me question, yet again, the commitment to this new “duty of candour” being alluded to by both the Mayor and the Chief Constable. 

I have unfortunately seen this pattern of behaviour many times before, and it is a very disappointing move. I had thought we may be turning a corner, as since Chief Constable Watson took over at the helm of GMP a couple of years ago, we at The Maggie Oliver Foundation have seen an improvement in the willingness of the force to engage and listen to the experiences of real victims and survivors, particularly amongst some senior officers.  The findings of Dame Vera’s report, and this unwillingness to share crucial evidence with the assurance review team, are significant steps backwards and will undermine the trust of the public to be able to believe that we are seeing a change towards greater transparency, honesty and accountability.

I implore Chief Constable Watson, and, in fact, police chiefs nationally, to consider carefully the recommendations made in Dame Vera’s report, and to engage openly with the team now undertaking the final part of the Assurance Review.  This would include allowing the team to speak to victims and survivors about their current experiences of GMP, and reviewing the information which Gary and Malcolm have flagged in their extensive Appendices to their resignation letter, included to ensure anyone coming in at this late stage, who hasn’t had their seven years knowledge of the workings of GMP, will know where to look if the aim is to really get to the truth, and not conceal it as has too often been the case in the past.

We at The Maggie Oliver Foundation will be watching keenly, and we will continue to fight ferociously to give a voice to those who would otherwise be silenced.”