Here at Confidential we get a constant stream of reports, releases and updates from Greater Manchester Police. This is a small selection of the reports received so far this week, not all of them.
Some do make for depressing reading but it's worth remembering that Greater Manchester has a population of 2.6m and that recent figures show crime rates have fallen across both the region and the country.
Friday 18 July: Man who starved child is jailed
A 32-year-old man who deprived his step-daughter of food, causing her to become seriously unwell, has been sentenced to three years, along with the child's mother, 30, who allowed the abuse to happen. She was given a 15 month suspended prison sentence
They cannot be named due to legal reasons.
On 23 April 2013 the victim, aged 10 at the time, was found collapsed and unresponsive on the bathroom floor of her then Rochdale home. An ambulance was called and she was admitted to the Royal Oldham Hospital.
She was found to be severely malnourished and had a distended abdomen, consistent with a child who has not been fed. She also had gross nutritional deficiencies.
She told police how she had stopped being regularly fed, that she would be given food intermittently - including being fed raw potato peelings - and would not be able to eat with the rest of the family, claims that were verified by siblings.
Detective Inspector Caroline Ward, said: "This is a tragic case and had the abuse continued much longer there is a very real possibility it could have cost this young girl her life.
Wednesday 16 July: £1m taken from criminals re-invested in the Force and community projects
More than £1m of cash seized from criminals across Greater Manchester over a three month period is to be invested in the Force and community projects.
Current legislation means cash recovered from criminals, either through confiscation or forfeiture orders, under the Asset Recovery Incentive Scheme (ARIS), is returned to the force where it was seized.
Between January 2014 and the end of March 2014:
- GMP’s Cash Seizure Team obtained 163 forfeiture orders totalling £3,761,215.78. £1,748,552.63 was released to the Home Office, of which £874,276.32 is to be received by GMP.
- £751,878.68 of money seized under confiscation orders was released to the Home Office, of which £160,240.79 is to be received by GMP, totalling £1,034,517.10 for the quarter.
In the whole 12 month period (April 2013 – March 2014), following funds remitted to the Home Office, £2,223,000 was returned in relation to cash forfeitures and £492,000 following confiscation orders, totalling £2,715,000.
GMP invests the money received from the ARIS to pay for the 11 financial investigators that are based on each of the Force’s divisions and towards the cost of staffing the Economic Crime Unit. A percentage is also placed into a fund which divisions can make applications for to go towards community projects.
Tuesday 15 July: Oldham trio sentenced after baby dies
Three people have been sentenced to twenty months each after a seven week old baby died following severe head trauma in Oldham.
Katarzyna Maria Gacek, 24, of Hillside Avenue, Oldham, Dawid Mokrzanowski, 27, of Hillside Ave, Oldham and Darren James Butterfield, 36, of Ross Avenue, Chadderton, were found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
At 2.10am on Sunday 26 January 2014, police were called to the Royal Oldham Hospital following reports a baby boy had been admitted from a house on Hillside Avenue, Oldham, with severe head injuries.
MokrzanowskiThomas Gacek was later transferred to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where he sadly died.
A post-mortem examination later revealed he died as a result of serious head injuries consistent with a non-accidental injury.
Senior Investigating Officer Duncan Thorpe from the Major Incident Team said: "Gacek, Mokrzanowski and Butterfield all colluded together to hide the truth of what really happened to baby Thomas that night.
"He had been subjected to abusive head trauma caused by violent shaking and suffered a number of other injuries including fractured ribs.
"This has been a very sad and difficult investigation for all those involved."
