As journalists, we will never stop championing our region; highlighting injustice and scandals and unapologetically campaigning for change
Police carry out a raid in connection with our investigation into counterfeit selling(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
This year, the M.E.N has produced work our journalists are immensely proud of. We are still working hard to champion our region; highlighting injustice, campaign for change, shine a light on crime and scandal, and use our platform to make underrepresented voices heard.
We have successfully campaigned for the rebuilding of North Manchester General Hospital, exposed how people could get their hands on illegal weight-loss jabs on TikTok, the violent horrors of working in A&E, revealed how a convicted paedophile was living near a playground and advertising an Airbnb to families and uncovered how a group of Neo-Nazis celebrated Hitler’s birthday in an Oldham pub.
We have campaigned for victims of domestic violence following the horrific murder of Caroline Gore. The 44-year-old was killed by her abusive partner in Wigan after repeatedly breaching a restraining order against her.
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Last summer, two Manchester Evening News campaigns were mentioned in the King’s Speech. We had long-backed Figen Murray’s campaign to change the law to make public events and venues safer from acts of terrorism following the death of her son Martyn in the Manchester Arena bombing.
And Awaab’s Law was also mentioned following our work. The law, applying to private landlords, will be introduced following the tragic death of Rochdale toddler Awaab Ishak that was extensively reported on by the M.E.N.
The aftermath from his death sparked anger across the country and a Manchester Evening News campaign, alongside Awaab’s family, Shelter, change.org and local MPs, to change the law in his honour.
And this year, things are no different.
For decades the M.E.N has been reporting extensively on the grooming gang scandal. Claims emerged again earlier this year online that the media and politicians have played a part in a major cover up that failed to be reported on sufficiently.
Following the death of a teenage girl in 2003 from a suspected heroin overdose, details of what became known as the grooming gang scandal emerged over the course of a decade. The M.E.N then was the first to report on a police probe into the abuse of girls in Rochdale.
Rochdale(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The following year, nine men from Rochdale and Oldham were convicted of being part of a child sexual exploitation ring linked to takeaways in Greater Manchester. In the years that followed, more men would be convicted.
Several local, regional and national inquiries were launched, each one uncovering huge failings by the authorities responsible for protecting vulnerable children.
Earlier this year, Jo Timan detailed the history of the grooming gang scandal on our patch in Greater Manchester and how the Manchester Evening News has reported on it for more than a decade.
READ: A history of trauma, a history of failure
Elsewhere, the promised rebuild of North Manchester General hospital had stalled. But we knew the people of Manchester deserved better.
Years before, the people who use the crumbling hospital were promised over and over again that it would be rebuilt by those in Westminster – but that bold promise of change never arrived.
Its crumbling Victorian walls forced operating theatres to close. Clinics for pregnant mums had to be relocated because of visible mould on the walls from leaking roofs. Some of the buildings on the site are more than 150 years old.
North Manchester General Hospital(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Last year, the list of empty promises fuelled thousands to support our dedicated campaign, fronted by health reporter Helena Vesty, in urging the new Labour government to finally take responsibility. It was earlier this year that Health Secretary Wes Streeting then announced that North Manchester General Hospital will – at last – get its rebuild.
Construction looks set to begin as soon as January 2027, with as much as £1.5bn coming the hospital’s way.
READ: No more empty promises – it’s time to deliver the hospital the people of North Manchester deserve
The abuse faced by NHS workers was another shocking revelation uncovered by the M.E.N earlier this year. Helena Vesty’s investigation exposed a culture where, for staff, facing violence or threats has become ‘just part of the job’.
The M.E.N revealed how those working in A&E departments are regularly made victim to horrendous abuse where staff are kicked, punched, spat on and verbally attacked.
The NHS admitted that those working in acute care such as A&E, specialties in hospital, mental health, and as part of the ambulance service, are deemed to be exposed to a high level of risk of violence and abuse.
READ: A&E is full of people dying, then someone threatens ‘I’ll follow you home’
In January, we also exposed how people were able to buy illegal and harmful weight loss jabs on TikTok. Our special investigation, researched by Nicole Wootton-Cane, revealed a black market for the in-demand drugs was spiralling on social media.
We were sent weight loss jabs being advertised on TikTok(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
We uncovered multiple active accounts advertising what purported to be semaglutide, which is a prescription-only medication in the UK otherwise sold under the brand name Ozempic as a type two diabetes medication and Wegovy as a weight loss jab.
It took us just ten minutes to find a seller who shipped us four pre-filled injections without asking any questions about age, medical history, or giving any medical guidance as to how to take the drug. Once they arrived, the package equally contained no instructions on how to take the medication, and no warnings of any potential side effects.
Health professionals told us that taking the jabs from unauthorised sellers could, for customers, be life-threatening. In the UK, you need a prescription for semaglutide and other weight loss jabs, and it is illegal to distribute them without one.
READ: The £40 weight loss jabs illegally sold on TikTok that could put you in hospital
The M.E.N equally exposed how dangerous and illegal sweets were on shop shelves in Greater Manchester and posed health risks to children.
Imported fizzy drinks and confectionary from the US with ingredients banned here in the UK due to their links with cancer, hyperactivity and organ failure, were found to be on sale in shops across the region.
American sweets on sale in Greater Manchester(Image: Trading Standards / Salford City Council)
Shelves were lined with multicoloured confectionary and cans of carbonated drinks that customers, including children, can buy with ease – except some can be illegal or as we found, often wrongly advertised and labelled.
Products with specific additives should be clearly labelled with an alert that states they ‘may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children’, however many weren’t. Other shops were selling products also containing the likes of Erythrosine (shown on US products as Red 3) which is completely banned in the UK, prompting stark health warnings from Trading Standards.
READ: Dangerous, illegal sweets and drinks linked to cancer are on shop shelves in Greater Manchester
The shabby streets of Cheetham Hill had for decades earned their reputation as the UK’s ‘counterfeit capital’. But even after a major police operation to close down the physical shops, the M.E.N exposed how the criminal network of selling hooky gear was continuing online.
Our investigation revealed how devious sellers were flogging the fake designer goods on Telegram, a highly-encrypted messaging service to advertise the items before shipping them out to customer’s addresses once bank transfers had been made. Police raids were carried out at a property near Strangeways following information the M.E.N had passed on.
Police vowed to tackle the sale of counterfeit goods in Manchester(Image: STEVE ALLEN)
We found that stock was often being stored in homes or units elsewhere, with various other decoy addresses set up with temporary courier postal licences for the items to be shipped out from to evade capture by police.
After our initial investigations, Telegram channels and secret Whatsapp chats were closed down. But it was only a matter of days before they reappeared again; showcasing an endless cat and mouse chase between police and counterfeit criminals.
The sale of fake goods is more than a harmless and victimless crime. This trade has a dark undercurrent involving gangs, violent and organised crime, money laundering and human trafficking.
In April, we exposed how a group of Neo-Nazis were able to celebrate Hitler’s birthday undercover in an Oldham pub with a swastika cake and racist flags.
Members of the north west branch of fringe far-right extremists the British Movement gathered at the Duke of Edinburgh in Royton, posting pictures of their celebration on their Telegram feed.
We exposed how a group of Neo-Nazis were able to celebrate Hitler’s birthday undercover in an Oldham pub(Image: Men Media)
One picture, showing three men with their faces pixelated holding a flag emblazoned with a swastika, SS bolts and the Iron Cross, has been digitally altered to include a black and white photograph of Hitler.
The Manchester Evening News exclusively obtained video footage which we published to reveal the faces of those involved in the hateful celebration, showing the group posing for pictures before quickly hiding flags away.
Our coverage also exposed how sick online chat rooms were being promoted on stickers across Manchester. Stickers and posters fixed to lampposts across Manchester were linking people to far-right chat rooms where racists shared extreme content celebrating Hitler, we found.
Following our investigations, police carried out a series of dramatic dawn raids across the north west, arresting nine suspects and uncovering a haul of replica guns, a suspected grenade, crossbow and swords.
READ: Neo-Nazis celebrate Hitler’s birthday in an Oldham pub with racist flags and a swastika cake
The Manchester Evening News exclusively revealed in June how a convicted paedophile was living just 24 steps from a playground and owned a house being rented out on Airbnb and Booking.com aimed at families.
Our investigation uncovered how registered sex offender Todros Grynhaus was allowed to move into a property just metres away from a playground which wasn’t spotted by authorities using digital mapping software. He was jailed for over 13 years in 2015 after a jury found him guilty of seven sex offences against two young girls between 1996 and 2004.
Todros Grynhaus
He was released in 2022 but was reportedly recalled to prison following a breach of his licence. He was later authorised to move into his current address following a Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) assessment – a mandatory requirement for all registered sex offenders.
However, the digital maps used during the MAPPA assessment did not pick up the presence of the children’s playground opposite Grynhaus’ new address.
The Manchester Evening News counted just 24 paces between the gate of Grynhaus’ home and the park. Authorities were only made aware of it following a complaint.
And we later exposed how, according to Land Registry documents, the property being rented out online was owned by a company called Heywood Investments Ltd of which Grynhaus was at that time listed as a director.
READ: Convicted paedophile Todros Grynhaus owns house that’s being rented out to families on Airbnb
The Manchester Evening News also exposed the rapid rise in AI-generated advertisements, posted on the likes of Facebook and Instagram, that were cleverly scamming shoppers while posing to be local boutique shops.
The investigations started when an advertisement for a shop called Harper Manchester, purporting to be on King Street in the city centre, announced it was closing down after almost thirty years of being run by married couple John and Alice Harper.
The Harper Manchester advert duping shoppers(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Except the shop never existed. Customers were duped into buying from what they thought was a legitimate and trustworthy business, only to receive cheaply made items weeks later that had instead been shipped from China.
What followed were endless stories of people who had fallen victim to the same scam and left out of pocket. Customers had been tricked by advertisements for a variety of different ‘UK-based’ clothing sites, only to later find they too had been stitched-up by those running the ‘scam’ operations from warehouses some 6,000 miles away.
And our publication has called for more stringent protection for victims of domestic abuse. Last year, the M.E.N launched a campaign, since backed by domestic abuse charities, Wigan council, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and several MPs, to change the domestic violence laws following the brutal murder of a much-loved mum at her home in Wigan.
Caroline Gore, who was stabbed to death by her abusive ex-partner David Liptrot in October last year, was murdered less than four weeks after Liptrot appeared in court for breaching a restraining order for a second time.
Caroline Gore(Image: GMP/Family)
But rather than being sent to prison, he received a suspended sentence and was allowed to walk free – with devastating consequences. With the support of Caroline’s family the M.E.N. called for a mandatory prison sentence for breaches of protective orders.
The government is currently trialling a long-awaited new scheme aimed at protecting domestic abuse victims in Greater Manchester. Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) will allow courts to impose electronic tagging to make sure perpetrators are adhering to them with the Home Office promising ‘tougher sanctions’ for rule breakers.
Greater Manchester Police is one of three forces across the country taking part in the two-year national pilot for the new DAPOs. More than 300 have been secured across the region since the trial began last year.
READ: He was allowed to walk free… weeks later she was dead