The father of a grooming gang survivor has accused Greater Manchester Police of using ‘bullying tactics’ when they targeted a grandmother over a Facebook post.
Marlon West, 51, labelled the force’s response as ‘appalling’ after they visited the home of Helen Jones over a harassment claim when she criticised Labour councillors online.
The furious father said the tactics deployed by the two officers which have horrified the nation are similar to what he experienced when he made desperate pleas for police to protect his daughter, Scarlett.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the advanced nurse practitioner said: ‘They can go round to a grandmother’s house intimidating her but they couldn’t be bothered to do any investigations into my daughter being raped as a child. I think that’s appalling.
‘And she won’t be the only one. I think it happens all the time.’
The campaigning father said it was another example of what he believes to be the ‘bullying’ actions of officers and two-tier policing.
‘Nothing surprises me with Greater Manchester Police,’ he said. ‘It’s appalling, it’s really bad. Once again it’s bullying tactics and it is what they did with us.’
He believes police are ‘jumping’ when politicians file complaints, yet when the terrified father went to a risk management meeting with the force he says he was shouted at by cops and told to stop reporting his daughter missing.
Marlon West, 51, pictured with his daughter Scarlett who is a grooming gang survivor, has criticised Greater Manchester Police for targeting a grandmother over a Facebook post
Scarlett, now 19, has previously spoken bravely and movingly about how a random incident at a bus station was to expose her in the clutches of abusers. Pictured: Aged 14
Doorcam footage of the police visiting grandmother Helen Jones’s house on Tuesday, February 18
‘It’s intimidation and what I believe happened to me,’ Mr West said.
‘The local councillors complain to the police… It’s what happens around here. Tory councillor Liam Billington, he challenged Labour councillors about grooming gangs and they were shutting him down. A lot of Labour councillors are terrified of losing votes.
‘When a councillor rings the police or somebody in government I think the police just jumps because they get pressure from local authorities.’
Due to his own experiences with the force he says, like Mrs Jones, he now is careful about what he posts online.
Mr West said: ‘I’m really careful on social media and what I say as I’m worried the police will get involved because of what has happened in the past.
‘I’m very careful with what I say and what I put.’
MailOnline has contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.
Scarlett, now aged 19, was last year named in the damning Baird Inquiry for the treatment she received by Greater Manchester Police while being held in police custody.
She was abused, groomed and trafficked from her early teens before being unlawfully strip searched in custody.
Helen Jones (pictured) called for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday
A shocked Mrs Jones rushed home fearing something tragic had happened to a loved one. At 2.15pm she received a phone call from an officer thought to be the same sergeant who knocked on her door and was told police had received a complaint about her recent social media posts
Mr West fumed: ‘They can go round to a grandmother’s house intimidating her but they couldn’t be bothered to do any investigations into my daughter being raped as a child’
Aged 13 (pictured) Scarlett attended private school and was in all the top sets
Scarlett, now aged 19, was last year named in the damning Baird Inquiry for the treatment she received by Greater Manchester Police while being held in police custody. Pictured: Aged 14
Marlon pictured with his daughter Scarlett in her early years said it was another example of what he believes to be the ‘bullying’ actions of officers and two-tier policing
Yesterday detectives were accused of acting like East Germany’s Stasi secret police for quizzing Mrs Jones over her calls for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday.
Police said that the 54-year-old had committed no crime – yet Mrs Jones says she was intimidated by them calling at her door and is too terrified to post on social media again.
Two plain-clothed officers knocked on the school administrator’s door 48 hours after they received the harassment complaint.
The extraordinary episode took place days after this newspaper revealed how Gwynne, the MP for Gorton and Denton, posted a vile message to Labour colleagues on a WhatsApp group saying he hoped one elderly constituent, who didn’t vote for the party, would die before the next election.
He made the offensive comment on the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group after the pensioner sent a letter to Stockport Labour councillor David Sedgwick complaining about her bin collections.
In the wake of the scandal, Mrs Jones, a school administrator, repeatedly posted that Cllr Sedgwick must resign from his Heatons North seat on a closed Facebook group called 4Heatons Hub, and another publicly available page called Reddish Matters.
Greater Manchester Police said: ‘We spoke to the woman for six minutes to advise she was the subject of a complaint of harassment and to answer any questions she may have.
‘No further action is necessary as no crime has been committed.
‘We are under a duty to inform her that she is the subject of a complaint. The genuine threats that have been made to local councillors recently have meant it has been more necessary to ensure all reports are looked at.
‘On this day officers were making 203 arrests for crimes like assault, burglary and rape. Tackling these priorities are why the complaint was dealt with two days after it was reported.’
