Police ignored young Rochdale grooming victim

One of the tragic victims of the Rochdale grooming gang was a 15-year-old girl who was repeatedly raped and plied with drugs by predatory paedophiles before dying from a heroin overdose.

Victoria Agoglia was meant to be receiving round-the-clock 'solo' residential care, but went missing 19 times in three months for up to two weeks at a time. Instead of trying to find her, carers message her asking: 'When are you coming back?'

It transpired she was being used for sex by older men in exchange for cash, alcohol and hard drugs - sometimes being abused by up to 25 of them in a single night.

Dozens of young, mainly white, girls were targeted, abused and raped by gangs of Muslim men in Rochdale as officials stood by. Victoria herself wrote a heartbreaking letter to police documenting her abuse, but was ignored.

Her heartbreaking story is just one of many documented in a new report published which documents the struggle they faced to be believed. It has also identified 96 men who are still deemed a potential risk to children.

In the run-up to her death in 2003, Victoria Agoglia ran away from her terraced house 21 times in the space of two months, and on five occasions the police were asked to look for her.

She was raped and was known by her carers to be exploited for sex by older men in exchange for cash, alcohol and hard drugs.

A scribbled note written by Victoria, titled 'Things I've done in the past', was passed to cops by social services and documented the abuse she suffered at the age of 13.

She wrote how she 'slept with people older' than her - 'half of them I don't even know their names. I am a sl*g.'

She went on: 'I think it I did it just to impress the boys and they treated me like ****. All the things I lost for drugs. Boys, my family, I lost all of that.'

The letter was signed off 'age 13, 1989.'

Her tone showed how the schoolgirl was in desperate need of help by police. But the letter was never acted upon.

In September 2003, Victoria visited the home of a 50-year-old man - Mohammed Yaqoob - who injected her with heroin.

She died in hospital five days later. He was later jailed for three and half years for injecting her with a noxious substance after being cleared of manslaughter.