In 2003, a 15-year-old girl in Manchester died after being injected with heroin. Victoria Agoglia’s death was the tragic culmination of 18 months of her telling authorities she was being repeatedly abused, raped and plied with drugs by predatory paedophiles.

Now, a startling review into Victoria’s death has been published. It outlines how her abuse was allowed to happen by officials and police who worked in a culture willing to turn a blind eye to gangs of predominantly Asian men roaming parts of Manchester for years and abusing dozens of victims.

The full scale of the abuse is laid bare in the wide-ranging report commissioned by the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, but it is the death of Victoria which ultimately sparked concern.

Little action was taken to stop the abuse, despite her telling carers she was being sexually assaulted and given drugs.

Agoglia was ‘repeatedly threatened and assaulted’

The report details how she was “repeatedly threatened, assaulted, returned intoxicated and in distress, gave information that she was involved in sexual exploitation, alleged rape and sexual assault requiring medical attention, became involved in the criminal justice system and had several pregnancy scares”, Manchester City Council found in 2004, the year after she died.

Operation Augusta, which investigated the grooming and abuse of vulnerable girls in care, was launched after her death in 2003 but shelved two years later.

The review into that operation, released on Tuesday, has heavily criticised the failures of police and local authorities in how they dealt with Manchester’s child exploitation.

It reveals how Victoria’s vulnerability in care allowed her to be abused by older men, while little action to stop the abuse appears to have been taken.

View photos Greater Manchester Police has been criticised in the 145-page report (PA) More

A troubled childhood

The report details how Victoria was put into care by her mother when she was eight years old. After her mother died and a foster placement broke down, she was regularly moved between placements.

By April 2002 – when she was 13 – concerns about her truancy, drug taking, theft and what was being referred to as “prostitution” (a term now replaced with the phrase “child sexual exploitation”) meant she was recognised as being at risk.

Residential care staff complained about her “boyfriend” – who they referred to as her “pimp” – supplying her with drugs when he visited her.

The unnamed man – referred to in the report as “Nominal Q” – was said to have been in his mid-20s but no attempt was made to verify his age.

Victoria was reported missing at least 136 times between February and September 2002, and nearly every time she returned she was thought to have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

On no less than 16 occasions, residential staff became aware Victoria was worried for her safety because of threats and incidents from inside or outside the residential unit in that same period.

This was known to both police and social services.

View photos Manchester City Council was criticised in the review for its care in the early 2000s (Google Maps) More

“Nominal Q”

After a spell in a secure unit, Victoria got back in touch with “Nominal Q”, and their “relationship” appears to have been “condoned by social services”, the report states.

He visited her placement under supervision but no attempts by Manchester City Council or Greater Manchester Police (GMP) seem to have been made to find out who he was.

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