Time is no barrier to justice say Greater Manchester Police as they continue their investigation into historic child abuse across the region
Over the last month, our CSE MIT team have conducted several arrests as part of the complex and wide-ranging investigation into child sexual abuse in Oldham in the 2010s.
On 22 January 2026, a 43-year-old man from Oldham and 53-year-old man from Rochdale were both arrested on suspicion of facilitating a child sexual offence and conspiracy to commit sexual offences.
On the same day, a 40-year-old man from Oldham was arrested on suspicion of rape.
On 4 February, a further two men based in West Yorkshire were arrested as part of this operation. A 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence and a 39-year-old man on suspicion of rape of a female under 16.
All these men have been bailed with strict conditions, and the survivors who have come forward and placed faith in the GMP of today have been updated with the progress being made.
These arrests in the last few weeks take the total number to 27 for Operation Sherwood.
Detective Chief Inspector Guy Laycock, Op Sherwood lead, said, “Since Operation Sherwood was launched in 2022, we have been working with the survivors who have put their trust in us to build up a strong evidential picture of what was happening to them.
“This has led us to where we are now, which is actively pursuing suspects, bringing them in for questioning and moving closer to securing outcomes.
“These criminals may have thought they had gotten away with it, but we are coming for them and will not allow passage of time to obstruct our investigations.
“We are determined to bring to justice all those who inflicted misery on children in Oldham.”
Meanwhile a 23-year-old man received a 13-and-a-half year sentence at Manchester Crown Court today (23 February 2026) after pleading guilty to several sexual offences against children.
Omar Saif aged 23 from Rochdale pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16,six of sexual communication with a child and two of inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity
This comes following an investigation led by specialist complex safeguarding experts on the Rochdale district, who primarily deal with recent cases of exploitation of children.
Saif has remained on remand since his arrest in September 2023, after the parent of a 14-year-old girl contacted police to say he had lured the girl to a secluded area close to an allotment in Rochdale and violated her without her consent.
Upon analysis of Saif’s mobile devices by our digital forensic experts, we uncovered a significant number of chats with girls aged 13 to 17 across his messages and social media. Much of this chat was found to be sexual in nature, involving him attempting to set up meetings with some of the girls at hotels, encouraging them to remove any boys from their friends list or share their location. He often lied about his age, stating he was younger than he was.
He also had coerced some of these girls to send indecent images of themselves to him as they chatted; despite knowing they were not of legal age to do so.
