GMP Rochdale's District Award Ceremony 2023

On Tuesday 23 May 2023, selected officers, and police staff from across Rochdale came together to support and celebrate the winners of 15 awards. The awards highlighted some of Rochdale’s best officers, police staff and members of the community who have been specially nominated by GMP Rochdale’s Chief Officers.

Awards given as part of the annual event included team of the year, problem solving, innovation, police officer of the year, staff member of the year, special constable of the year, volunteer of the year, PCSO of the year, apprentice of the year, student officer of the year and trauma informed – kindness award.

One of the awards received during the ceremony is in memory of Callum Riley, a 17-yar-old boy who was murdered in Heywood in September 2022. His family pay tribute to Callum here.

His mum – Tracy – said “I am truly honoured that I am able to present the first ever Callum Riley Award today. I am so pleased to see the young people who have also faced tough times and have managed to achieve amazing things and do what Callum did.”

This award was given to Elizabeth Crompton for her outstanding contribution to youth projects across the Northwest of England.

Chief Superintendent Nicky Porter said: “Elizabeth gives up much of her time to help other young people and represents their opinions. Elizabeth has travelled to three different countries over the past year including Romania as part of the ‘European Network for Regional Youth Projects’ and has brough back two campaigns to work on locally in Rochdale.

“The first is to encourage more young people to donate blood and overcome the barrier of having to speak and read English in order to do this.”

“The second is one of which Elizabeth has invested so much of her time in, which is an allyship project to tackle violence against women and girls. For this Elizabeth has written up a resource pack and has been going around schools, colleges and youth groups and meeting with key decision makers to roll this out and share it across the Northwest.

“Elizabeth has had a huge positive impact and her contributions to her local community are extraordinary while also studying for four A-Levels, she is a remarkable young woman and very honoured she is the first winner of The Callum Riley Award.”

Another of the awards given during the ceremony was for Criminal Investigation of the Year which celebrates the hard work and dedication to achieving justice in a particularly challenging investigation.

The award was awarded to ten officers and staff involved in Operation Cardington which was the sentencing of Andrew Ellison, a dangerous, violent, and serial abuser. It was a detailed and challenging investigation conducted by Rochdale CID into historic domestic abuse and serious sexual offences involving five female victims from 1995 to 2022.

As a result of the investigation and under the excellent leadership of DS Ruth Thompson, Andrew Ellison was convicted of 28 counts of rape, false imprisonment, harassment, grievous bodily harm, threats to kill, exposure and sexual assault by penetration and was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment and will remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Chief Superintendent Nicky Porter of GMP’s Rochdale district and the Force Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls said: “From the outset DS Ruth Thompson and her team of detectives were determined to expose Andrew Ellison’s offending and investigate a pattern of abuse that he raged upon five survivors, from 1995 to the present day.

“Multiple Detectives from Rochdale’s Crime Investigation Department focused on this operation and dedicated their efforts to ensure all the victims receive justice. A skilled and specially trained interviewer conducted two separate interviews with Ellison’s victims covering 14 hours of audio. Over 60 witnesses provided us statements with over 100 people being contacted across the North-West of England which provided our officers with a full range of information and data to be able to build a solid case against Ellison’s crimes.

“I truly hope this conviction goes someway in bringing justice for the women he abused. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness and let survivors experiencing domestic abuse or who have been domestically abused know, that you are not alone, and we will support anyone brave enough to report it. All five women’s support throughout this investigation enabled us to locate more victims as a result of their bravery and as a result we have been able to sentence an extremely dangerous individual from our communities.

“To all perpetrators that believe that this is ok, our message is simple. We will relentlessly pursue you through the criminal courts and we will continue to approach Domestic Abuse as one of society’s most abusive and serious of crimes."

Final comments must rest with two victims from this case: “I am so glad I helped the other girls to come forward and any future girls. He is where he belongs now, thank God he can’t hurt anyone else. I am so happy, the support from your all was everything. Thank you for everything.” And “Thank you for finding me and letting me tell my side, finally I can breathe and try and move on. I could not thank you all enough for your support.”

Another of the awards given during the ceremony was for Bravery in memory of Ray Codling and was awarded to PC Lee Hird in recognition of his selfless commitment, unwavering professionalism, and disregard for his personal safety in managing a highly dangerous situation involving two dogs which were dangerously out of control.

PC Hird was dispatched to a property after reports a male was assaulting his dogs, other officers on the scenes struggled to contain the dogs and subsequently any offenders at the scene. PC Hird had planned in his mind he would enter with a shield with a view to containing the dogs.

At the scene there were reports that there was a seriously injured male in the property and PC Hird used the shield to drive both the dogs back up the stairs past the casualty and into another room and used the shield as a makeshift door so emergency services could tend to the injured male. Unfortunately, the male died at the scene and the scene became a murder scene which needed preserving but the dogs still remained aggressive.

The dogs became more aggressive wanting to protect their deceased owner and one dog jumped over the shield leaving PC Hird even more vulnerable. Using another shield, he drove the larger dog back across the landing and into the bathroom with a fixed door. He then sourced a dog lead and entered the room without a shield and managed to lasso the dog which had an injury to its face and was extremely frightened. Having secured the dogs, they were able to be rescued by specialist dog units and the scene still preserved.

All winning recipients of the district awards will be nominated for the force recognised Chiefs awards of which the Chief Constable, Stephen Watson will select the winners of each category to highlight the absolute best officers and staff from across Greater Manchester Police.