Claims over ‘failures’ in investigation into response to child sexual abuse in Rotherham ‘completely inaccurate’, says IOPC

Two former IOPC investigators told Channel 4 News that documents and evidence were mishandled, leadership was poor and that there was an instruction not to go after senior officers as part of Operation Linden.

Operation Linden was a wide-ranging and detailed series of investigations into how South Yorkshire Police responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. It was the second largest investigation in its history after Hillsborough.

It was set up after the Jay report concluded in August 2014 that failings in political and police leadership contributed to the sexual abuse of 1,400 girls in South Yorkshire.

Speaking out for the first time on the Channel 4 programme, Garry Harper, who spent seven years as an investigator with the IOPC, including working for two years as part of the major investigations team on Operation Linden said: “We’re just another chapter in the failure for the survivors. They haven’t received the service they should have received and the force hasn’t been held to account in the way that it should.”

Mr Harper was assigned a specific investigation as part of Operation Linden. During this he says he was told by a supervising officer that he should concentrate on the person central to the investigation, an officer with just six months’ experience as a detective, and not look at senior officers.

“We were actively discouraged from working up the chain trying to find out what had gone on. It was very much this is your complainant, you deal with that and that alone”, he adds.

However, the IOPC denied this, saying there was a dedicated investigation within Operation Linden which was “focused solely on senior officers within the force”.

Responding the claims on the Channel 4 News programme, the IOPC said: “Our priority from the very start of Operation Linden was always the welfare of the survivors, who showed incredible bravery in coming forward and throughout the whole process.

“Many of the survivors we spoke to made it clear they wanted primarily to see meaningful changes to policing that meant other people wouldn’t have to suffer in the way they did.

“Every one of the 91 investigations within Operation Linden was carried out thoroughly and all lines of inquiry explored by up to 50 IOPC staff. During the seven-year investigation, the second largest in our history, we investigated 265 separate allegations made by 51 complainants, 44 of whom were survivors of abuse and exploitation. Approximately 1,000 statements were taken and 4,000 investigative actions undertaken.

“It’s completely inaccurate to suggest that investigators were told not to investigate senior South Yorkshire Police officers – there was a dedicated investigation within Operation Linden which was focused solely on senior officers within the force and, had we found any indication of corruption, it would have been rigorously pursued.”

Claims from campaigners that a report into senior officers, which found they had failed to protect children, was “buried”​​, were flatly denied by the IOPC.

“There was no attempt to bury that report,” it said. “Like the other investigation reports, it could not be published due to the very personal information and data included within it. That is why we produced one overarching report, published in 2022, detailing our findings and recommendations.

“We concluded that South Yorkshire Police failed to protect vulnerable children and young people at that time and to recognise the scale of the offending and effectively tackle it. We found systemic issues including failures in leadership, lack of professional curiosity, cultural issues and gaps in skills and training. The force acknowledged past failings and the focus needs to be on learning from those mistakes.

“Where individual failings were identified they have been addressed, but our role is to investigate – we do not make the decision on sanctions. Of the 47 officers investigated, we found eight had a case to answer for misconduct and six for gross misconduct. In many cases, officers had retired and, due to the legislation, could not face disciplinary proceedings, the passage of time also had an impact on the evidence that was able to be gathered.”

The IOPC added: “All of our 13 recommendations – aimed at ensuring others did not have to go through the same experiences – were accepted by South Yorkshire Police as well as the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Law Commission and the College of Policing.

“One recommendation, accepted by the Law Commission, was for a review of the laws surrounding offences committed by young people who are being groomed or exploited to reduce the impact on their futures.

“Operation Linden resulted in actions to improve the way survivors are treated when they report child sexual abuse and exploitation, and ensure police officers are better equipped to investigate these horrific offences. This is something survivors consistently told us they wanted to see.”