‘Child 44” was raped by many men over a long period of time, eventually forced to have an abortion, aged 13. None of her abusers was charged with rape against her; many were not even interviewed. After the termination, the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) seized possession of the foetus without her knowledge, let alone consent, leaving it forgotten in a freezer until spotted during “a routine property review”.

“Child 37” was 13. She told the police that she had been “in the park with another child and met four Asian men”, two of whom had raped her. Because she was reluctant to undergo a medical or give a video interview, the police recorded the crime as requiring “no further action”.

Two distressing stories out of dozens from a report on grooming gangs in Rochdale published last week. It is the latest in a series of excoriating accounts of official attitudes to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham, Telford, Oxford and many other towns, each one as tormenting to read as the next.

The Rochdale report details again the way the council and police ignored shocking crimes and left children “at the mercy of their abusers”. Of the 74 children in council files thought likely to have been sexually exploited, just three had been “appropriately protected by the statutory agencies”. Many more were not in the files. The report found at least “96 individuals who potentially pose a risk to children”, though the true figure was likely to be much higher. Many had not even been interviewed by police.

At the heart of such official failure is the contempt with which police, social workers and council officers viewed victims. There is a scene in the first episode of Three Girls, the viscerally harrowing 2017 BBC drama........

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