Name: Maggie Oliver

Advertisement

Best known for: being a Detective Constable who helped expose the Rochdale grooming gangs

Bio: Oliver was one of the key figures in Operation Span, an investigation into the Rochdale sex grooming scandal. She was a DC who persuaded vulnerable and reluctant girls to give evidence against paedophiles who had sexually abused them for years.

However, one of the victims she convinced to speak out was portrayed as a member of the grooming gang in court.

“She was named on the indictment along with the men in the dock as someone who had acted with the perpetrators. She was essentially portrayed as a madam,” Oliver told the Manchester Evening News. “It made me sick to my stomach. I’d been used. This vulnerable girl had been failed. She was collateral damage. Because of that, social services also eventually tried to take her child from her. It was wicked and I was shocked.”

This turn of events saw Oliver resign from the police and she became a vocal critic of how the case was handled.

Advertisement

Oliver was played by Lesley Sharp in Three Girls, the BBC drama telling the story of the sexual abuse scandal.

Authors

Thomas LingDigital editor, BBC Science Focus

Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement