Two men have been convicted of grooming and sexually abusing six boys, now all grown men, in Rochdale and Manchester in the 1980s and 1990s following a GMP investigation by a local team of specialist detectives.
Throughout the four-week trial, Manchester Crown Court heard the painful and difficult testimony from the six male survivors who, at the time the abuse started, were aged between just 9 and 13. Their experiences continued for many years.
David Marsh (74) and Anthony Whitehead (72) were finally brought to justice for their appalling campaigns of offending this week as a jury unanimously found them guilty of all 35 sex offences on teenage boys.
It comes after a comprehensive five-year investigation by specialist detectives from GMP Rochdale’s Complex Safeguarding Team – one of 10 such dedicated teams across every town and city in Greater Manchester – and the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team.
Detectives worked carefully to identify any victim-survivors and work with them at a pace they were comfortable with to gain their confidence and provide vital evidence about their abuse.
The investigation began in 2019 after police received a report that one of the survivors confided into a person in authority that he had been sexually abused by two men as a boy. Investigators found that one of the men was dead but that the second man, Marsh, was alive.
As enquiries commenced, police began to form a picture of a sustained campaign of offending by Marsh and Whitehead on boys in Rochdale which would involve exploiting their vulnerabilities, taking them to other parts of Manchester whilst grooming them with cigarettes, alcohol and money.
GMP approached a number of other potential male survivors who we were incredibly grateful to for providing the details of their experiences of abuse in our effort to pursue prosecutions with the Crown Prosecution Service.
Six men have been supported throughout by the Complex Safeguarding Team and the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team – comprising of an expert unit of police, specialist detectives and local partners.
Anyone spoken to as part of the investigation has been referred for support at specialist partner agencies and charities, such as the specialist male survivor organisation in Greater Manchester, We Are Survivors and the St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre.
Marsh, of Northenden, and Whitehead, of Atherton, will be sentenced on 27 November 2024.
Wendy Chappell, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West’s rape and serious sexual offence unit, said: “Marsh conducted a vile campaign of sexual abuse on children as young as nine, while Whitehead sexually abused a fourteen-year-old boy. They acted solely for their own self-gratification, with no thought for the life-changing trauma their abuse would cause.
“These convictions send a very clear message that the Crown Prosecution Service, working alongside our law enforcement colleagues, will relentlessly pursue justice for victims and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, whenever that abuse took place.
“I would like to thank the men for reporting their abuse and making it possible to build this case and bring these sexual predators to justice.”
