The original PDF release :
The Rape Gang Inquiry Report
Britain doesn’t have a racism problem, it has an immigration problem : Rupert Lowe
Contents :
Whistleblower Testimony
Demographics and Culture
The Influence of Islam
Homegrown Enabling Factors
Impact on Survivors
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
The Rape Gang Inquiry has now concluded the first phase of its work. It was established to examine one of the most horrendous scandals in the long history of our country: the systematic targeting of vulnerable girls, overwhelmingly White British, by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs across towns and cities up and down the nation.
The evidence presented throughout the hearings confirmed what had long been known but repeatedly denied by many in the political class. The Inquiry welcomed girls, boys, men, and women of all races and religions to testify to their experiences to gain a complete picture of the rape gang phenomenon.
The Casey Report of 2025 stated that disproportionate numbers of men from “Asian ethnic backgrounds” were among the suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation (‘CSE’). Baroness Casey quoted local reports showing that a significant proportion of those convicted were of Pakistani and/or Muslim heritage. The crimes stretch back generations.
The Rape Gang Inquiry was necessary because the state and its institutions have failed catastrophically over decades. Police, social services, schools, the NHS, licensing authorities, and governments allowed these gangs to operate with impunity. There was a demonstrable lack of political will to confront them. The Labour Party initially refused a public inquiry altogether, only relenting under considerable pressure. It will be many years before this inquiry is complete and there is no guarantee that it will adequately address the politically sensitive ethnoreligious nature of the phenomenon. Despite now pushing for an inquiry in opposition, when in government the Conservative Party did very little.
The Rape Gang Inquiry was survivor-led. Every day the panel sat with Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor-turned-activist herself, alongside a variety of experts who attended whenever their specialist subject formed the focus of our efforts to get to the truth. We examined distinct areas of the scandal in turn so that a maximally full picture could be established. Parents and carers described their experiences. Instances of pregnancy, abortion, and children born of rape were laid bare. Whistleblowers who had previously been ignored gave evidence. Policing and justice failures were documented. Social care, NHS services (including sexual health and mental health), education, taxi licensing, demographic trends, cultural and social issues, and ideological obstructions to justice were all scrutinised without restriction. Nothing was off the table. Misguided political correctness and cultural sensitivities played no part in the proceedings. The promise made to every donor was honoured in full: the truth was pursued and justice was our only objective.
Survivors were finally given the platform they had been denied for so long and were central to the Inquiry. The full scale and nature of the crimes can now be placed on the public record. The true horror of what took place is no longer hidden.
Although the Inquiry lacked statutory powers, the response was overwhelming. Politicians, whistleblowers, experts, family members, and many others came forward. Those few in prominent positions who declined to give evidence did so knowing their refusal would be noted.
This report sets out findings and makes clear recommendations for how the problem of rape gangs can be eradicated. The country now knows the full truth. The country has been given the basis for justice. The country has the roadmap to ensure these crimes never happen again.
Executive Summary
The Rape Gang Inquiry examined the systematic targeting of vulnerable girls, overwhelmingly White British, by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs across towns and cities throughout the United Kingdom. The evidence put to the Inquiry confirms that this scandal constitutes one of the most horrendous failures in the history of the country. Organised networks of perpetrators built coordinated operations that transported victims between locations, supplied them with drugs and alcohol, recorded abuse for distribution and blackmail, and passed girls between multiple adult men. These crimes have been committed for decades, since the 1950s by Pakistanis in particular, and have affected every region of our nation.
The scale of the crimes committed is staggering. It has been previously established that, at the very least, 250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma. 1 The true number is probably higher. The perpetrators bear primary responsibility, yet the institutional failures that enabled them for decades must also be confronted. In court records and official inquiries, around 87% of those convicted in these group-based child sexual exploitation (‘CSE’) cases bore distinctively Muslim names. 2 The vast majority of men involved in these gangs were not convicted. Dr. Taj Hargey, an imam with the Oxford Islamic Congregation, believes the true proportion of gang members who are Muslims to be around 95%. 3 This figure far exceeds the Muslim share of the overall United Kingdom population. The overwhelming majority of the rape gang networks consisted entirely of men from Muslim backgrounds – predominantly of Pakistani heritage, although smaller groups from Somali, Iranian, Syrian, Turkish, and other Muslim origins were also involved.
The Inquiry heard harrowing testimony from survivors and their families. The method used to groom children typically followed the same process. Girls as young as 11 were initially befriended by a young Muslim man who then treated the young child like an adult and would then start providing them with alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes. After a few months the girls would then be collected from school gates, care homes, and streets in taxis. They were taken to houses, flats, restaurants, and hotels where they were raped repeatedly by groups of men, tortured, filmed for blackmail, and told they were “white trash” or “kuffar” who merited punishment. Many became pregnant while still children. Some miscarried under trauma, others endured coerced abortions, and some gave birth to children who were later removed by the state. We found that the same unspeakable crimes occurred in at least 149 local authority districts – close to 40% of all such districts across the United Kingdom (see page 14 for our full map). Survivors described daily rapes, “red rooms” of extreme torture, trafficking between cities, and institutional disbelief that compounded their suffering. Some girls were even trafficked to the Middle East where they would endure Islamic marriage.
The demographic and cultural drivers are clear. Perpetrators from Pakistani Muslim and other Muslim backgrounds operated under an honour- and shame-based clan code that treated non-Muslim girls, especially white working class girls, as property available for sexual use. This pattern was reinforced by eight theological and legal aspects of Islam. These include the doctrine of Muslim superiority drawn from Quranic verses that position Muslims at the top with a duty to correct non-believers. The gang members’ justification for their crimes can be found in the Islamic principles of loyalty and disavowal known as al-walā' wa-l-barā'. It demands enmity towards non-Muslims, the superiority of men over women, forced marriage combined with the absence of any fixed minimum age of consent, the perception of female sexuality as inherently dangerous, a system of sex slavery that authorises sexual relations with non-Muslim captives, and a religiously sanctioned social hierarchy that subjugates conquered non-Muslims. These elements, filtered through clannish immigrant sub-cultures, provided religious justification that enabled the systematic rape and even slaughter of White British girls.
Were Britain functioning effectively, these girls would have received considerable state protection. However, every one of our institutions failed them catastrophically. Police forces ignored repeated reports, criminalised victims instead of perpetrators, destroyed evidence, and allowed known rapists to walk free on bail. Social care services undermined protective parents, placed children in trafficking hubs inside children’s homes, closed cases despite clear indicators of exploitation, and retaliated against whistleblowers. The NHS recorded genital injuries, multiple sexually transmitted infections in children as young as 13, pregnancies caused by rape, and suicide attempts, yet discharged victims back to their abusers without safeguarding referrals or trauma care. Schools observed older men collecting girls at the gates, heard disclosures of rape on school premises, and responded by excluding victims rather than protecting them. Taxi licensing authorities renewed permits for drivers who formed the logistical backbone of the networks and collapsed in the face of organised protests when basic safety measures were proposed.
Political failure lies at the heart of the scandal. Successive governments lacked the will to confront the ethnic and religious patterns. The Labour Party bears particular responsibility. It initially refused a public inquiry and only relented under pressure by ordering a process viewed with widespread scepticism.
Labour-dominated councils and MPs were briefed on the gangs long ago yet later denied knowledge. The party prioritised electoral reliance on Muslim voting blocs and then blocked or watered down inquiries, suppressed ethnicity data, and framed legitimate concerns as ‘far-right’ agitation. When finally forced to act, the Labour government produced a national inquiry whose tightly drawn terms of reference deliberately excluded systematic examination of the demographic, cultural, and religious drivers. The Conservative Party, while in government, continued with Labour’s approach and failed to impose mandatory ethnicity recording or launch a full statutory inquiry despite clear evidence from Rotherham and elsewhere. Scottish political parties have refused a dedicated inquiry and failed to record offender ethnicity. Political correctness, fear of accusations of racism, and fear of losing electoral support from certain demographics have taken precedence over the protection of British children.
Whistleblowers, parents, and survivors who came forward showed extraordinary courage, despite having been met in the past with disbelief and intimidation.
The perpetrators operated with impunity because the state enabled them. The evidence now demands immediate and decisive action to eradicate the problem, deliver justice for the victims, and ensure these abhorrent crimes are eradicated from our shores.
We now have a clearer sense of the problem. There are a number of measures necessary to resolve them, up to and including considerable changes to our criminal justice system, the passage of legislation aimed at targeting specifically gang-based CSE, and a great amount of institutional overhaul.
Our detailed list of recommendations includes improved data recording on ethnoreligious patterns among offenders, far stronger sentencing, a comprehensive deportation effort, institutional accountability measures, multi-agency coordination, specialist training, enhanced safeguarding through greater family involvement, and closing the various gaps in British law through which so many victims fell.
Following the publication of this Report, we intend to release the full witness testimonies, gather additional survivor accounts, identify those responsible in Parliament, and begin civil and private legal actions to ensure maximal accountability.
Overview of Crimes
Rape gangs have exploited children systematically across every region of the United Kingdom for decades.
The independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection Alexis Jay has identified the 1970s as the decade when immigrant rape gangs first began tormenting the girls of Britain. 4 However, the British Newspaper Archive reveals that the first recorded case of specifically Pakistani rape gangs dates back to 1955, when four Bradford-based Pakistanis were charged with raping a 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough. 5 This was soon after former colonial subjects, from the subcontinent as much as the Caribbean, became eligible to enter the United Kingdom in non-trivial numbers under the British Nationality Act 1948. 6 What began as singular and small-scale instances became systematic and industrial over time.
These horrific crimes have only escalated in recent decades, especially following Tony Blair’s 1997 victory and the start of orchestrated mass immigration. With greater numbers came greater opportunities for abuse. Perpetrators built organised networks that transported victims between towns and cities and passed girls between multiple adult men.
In each of these areas the same tactics were used. Girls as young as 11 were targeted with gifts, alcohol and drugs, collected in taxis from school gates, care homes and streets and taken to houses, flats, restaurants and hotels and then raped repeatedly by groups of men, passed between perpetrators, trafficked across county lines, and in many cases impregnated or forced into abortions. Most victims endured violence, were filmed for blackmail, or told they were “white trash” or “kuffar” who deserved punishment.
The authorities at every level – including the police, social services, health services, schools, licensing bodies, and politicians – knew the patterns, possessed the intelligence, and still failed to protect the country’s children. The evidence establishes that a national scandal of repeated rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma enabled by institutional denial, political calculation, and fear of the accusation of racism took place over decades.
The incidents of criminal activities listed in this report are drawn from court records, official and unofficial inquiries across the country, and witness testimony provided to the Inquiry. They confirm that this was never a series of isolated local failures. It was a coordinated, nationwide pattern of organised child sexual exploitation that repeated in town after town, city after city, from the far north to the south coast. The same ethnic and religious profile of the perpetrators was documented throughout almost all of the witnesses who contacted the Inquiry.
The scale of the rape gang phenomenon is endemic across the entirety of Britain. The 250,000 figure originates directly from a statement in the House of Lords by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 14 May, 2019:
“Do the Government accept that if we extrapolate nationally the Jay report on Rotherham and other reports from Telford and Oxford, there appear to have been upwards of 250,000 young white girls raped in this century, very largely by Muslim men, usually several times a day for years?”
He added that this number “is probably an underestimate.” This extrapolation now has greater support due to further data that has been collected, derived from scaling the patterns documented in major inquiries:
● Rotherham (Jay Report, 2014): At least 1,400 girls abused between 1997 and 2013, with some updated estimates exceeding this. Perpetrators were overwhelmingly Pakistani Muslim men.
● Telford Inquiry (2022): More than 1,000 children (predominantly girls) over decades, again with the same perpetrator profile.
● National footprint: The grooming gang model has been confirmed in dozens of towns and cities. Our independent Inquiry, led by Rupert Lowe MP, has heard evidence demonstrating coordinated operations extending to all corners of the country, in at least 149 local authority districts (see national footprint image below).
When the Rotherham/Telford scale is applied across the documented national distribution, and multiplied by the extreme under-reporting factor accepted by official reviews, the total reaches the 250,000 threshold as a bare minimum.
We are far from grasping the full extent of grooming gang criminality in modern Britain. It is reasonable to assume that, since sexual abuse of all kinds tends to be under-reported, this is also true of grooming gangs. The Independent has reported that almost 19,000 children were identified as sexual exploitation victims in England in one year alone, despite the reluctance of state actors to name or tackle the problem of the rape gangs.
After decades of abuse, victims must number in the hundreds of thousands. The full scale is not yet known.
Every major review has emphasised that recorded statistics severely understate reality:
● Baroness Casey National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (June 2025): The audit explicitly states that the scale, nature, and characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation remain impossible to quantify precisely due to inconsistent data collection and historical suppression.
● Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and multiple local inquiries (2022–2025): “It is simply not possible to know the scale” because ethnicity, group offending, and historical cases were routinely unrecorded or shelved to protect “community cohesion.”
Overleaf is a heat map that portrays the various locations in which the Inquiry can be sure the rape gangs operated. It is likely that the true extent is far worse.
The scale, the tactics, the perpetrator profile, and the systemic inaction were almost always identical everywhere. Britain did not face dozens of separate local scandals. It faced one national scandal that the state allowed to grow for decades.
LONDON
London stands exposed as the epicentre of institutional denial in the grooming gang scandal. While northern towns faced public inquiries after the truth emerged, the capital maintained a wall of silence for years. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has repeatedly insisted there were no grooming gangs operating in the city. As our inquiry heard from Susan Hall, Leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, the rape gang phenomenon is in fact endemic within the capital. After challenging Khan about the presence of such gangs in London, Hall was inundated with calls from women and girls purporting to be victims of their predation. Khan describes evidence from whistleblowers as malicious and politically motivated. He told the London Assembly that the problem was far more complex than in other parts of the country and that young people were being exploited through county lines rather than organised group-based child sexual exploitation.
These statements were made despite the Metropolitan Police holding reports of young girls being plied with alcohol and drugs then raped by groups of men in hotels and other locations across the capital. A Daily Express investigation revealed that Khan had direct access to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary documents detailing exactly these patterns of offending. He read the files yet continued to deny the existence of grooming gangs in public.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP has accused Khan of facilitating a cover-up and other politicians stated that both the Mayor and the Metropolitan Police had been denying grooming gangs in London. Campaigners, including whistleblower Maggie Oliver and Chris Wild, described the capital as the last bastion of denial and warned that the scale of abuse there was more catastrophic than anywhere else in the country.
The evidence now emerging confirms their warnings. In October 2025, the Metropolitan Police announced a review of 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases. The National Crime Agency launched Operation Beaconport to examine thousands more files nationwide after initial assessments found human errors, missed lines of inquiry, and cases wrongly dropped. London forms a significant part of this backlog. A former Metropolitan Police detective has described industrial-scale child prostitution and grooming in the capital, with authorities aware but opting for inaction due to a mixture of “incompetence, laziness, and corruption.”
London has the largest Muslim population in Britain. Khan relies on significant electoral support from those communities, as well as having an ethno-religious motive to protect the public reputation of Pakistani Muslims in particular. Widespread acknowledgment of organised networks of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men targeting vulnerable white girls would have shattered the narrative of community cohesion that successive London administrations – none more than Khan’s – have promoted. As for others in authority, fear of being labelled ‘racist’ paralysed the Metropolitan Police and City Hall in the same way it did in Rotherham and Rochdale before them. One anonymous whistleblower told us that boys as well as girls are an especially vulnerable target for criminal gangs – typically Albanian, Somali, or Turkish – operating in the capital. Yet the relevant bodies still refuse to collect data on ethnicity, wilfully rendering themselves blind to the very behavioural patterns that are supposed to aid law enforcement in its pursuit of justice.
The Metropolitan Police review, the National Crime Agency operation, and the witness accounts pouring in prove that group-based child sexual exploitation has thrived in our capital city.
This Inquiry records the failure without reservation. Khan and the senior leadership of the Metropolitan Police must answer for their role in this scandal. Until the capital confronts the truth with the same rigour now demanded elsewhere, the children of London remain at risk and the state remains complicit.
Victim Testimony
There are thousands of survivors who could have provided evidence to our Inquiry team. Below is a summary of some of the testimony provided by our brave witnesses who spoke at the Inquiry hearings. Some of the witnesses have to remain anonymous for their own safety.
Chloe -
Throughout her early childhood, ‘Chloe’ was popular at school, performed well academically, and enjoyed an active social life. Although her parents separated when she was young, she describes her early upbringing as relatively stable. Following the separation, full custody of Chloe and her older brother was awarded to their father, despite his alcoholism. Her mother, on the other hand, was often absent from her life and became homeless following the separation.
Chloe recalls a generally secure and supportive home environment under the care of her father. However, following his sudden death just before her tenth birthday, she moved in with her mother and her mother’s new husband – a man she describes as a “paedophile” by whom she was sexually abused. Chloe’s mother caught her husband assaulting Chloe on many occasions, but did little to stop it. On one occasion, Chloe’s mother caught her husband in the shower with Chloe and instead of intervening, “she closed the door and walked out.” At this time, Chloe was ten years old.
The abuse soon escalated to rape. Chloe’s stepfather supplied her with alcohol and cigarettes “to keep her quiet,” and she began smoking cannabis. Around the same time, Chloe started truanting and spending time in the local town centre with a friend unsupervised. She describes groups of Muslim men, primarily Pakistanis, aged 20 to over 50 showing them attention, including wolf whistling and buying them alcohol. Many were taxi drivers who would take the girls into their cars and drive them around the town. At this stage, there was no sexual abuse, and although the men’s behaviour was clearly inappropriate, Chloe and her friend – then in their final year of primary school – enjoyed being treated like adults.
The grooming soon intensified. The provision of alcohol and takeaways was accompanied by emotional manipulation, with the men – many of whom were related to one another – presenting themselves as sympathetic friends to Chloe. Chloe describes this process as them “mapping out, are you a vulnerable person?” Physical contact, including kisses and massages, became increasingly common. Meanwhile, the abuse by her stepfather at home worsened, and her mother was all but absent as a guardian.
At this time, Chloe had an aunt and uncle who lived nearby, and she often sought refuge with them. She had spent holidays with them during her earlier childhood, and felt that she could trust them. On one occasion, she had visited them while truanting, before returning home and spending the day there while her mother and stepfather were at work. To Chloe’s surprise, her uncle arrived at her house unannounced an hour later, and she invited him inside. After a brief conversation, Chloe’s uncle sexually assaulted her. Chloe resisted, and he relented and left.
She told her mother about the assault, and her mother reported it to the police. The police accused Chloe of lying, and no further action was taken. Until this incident, she had regarded her uncle as “one of the best people in her life” – afterwards, there were no adults left that Chloe could confide in or seek support from. Increasingly isolated, she became more deeply involved with the groups of Muslim men she encountered in the town centre.
One evening, Chloe’s friend suggested that they travel to a nearby town where one of the men had a hotel room. They were picked up by the man – who was drunk and under the influence of drugs – and taken to the hotel. When they arrived, hotel staff saw them but did not intervene. In the room, the girls were given a potent strain of cannabis, which left Chloe – then eleven – “absolutely smashed.” Chloe’s friend was taken into another room by a group of men, and Chloe was groped by the man who remained. Chloe resisted, and he hit her. The man did not attempt to sexually assault her again, and instead threw the girls – both of whom were still intoxicated – out of the hotel and refused to drive them back to their home town. They were forced to walk. It was around midnight. Chloe did not want to go back to her home as she feared her mother would beat her for being out late, so stayed with her friend.
In the early hours of the morning, Chloe was collected from her friend’s house by the police after her mother reported her missing. Chloe lied to the police and her mother about where she had been. Chloe’s mother “grounded” her for a month, meaning she was stuck at home with her predatory stepfather – a period she describes as “torture.”
After the month passed, Chloe arranged to see her friend, who boasted that she had a new boyfriend. Chloe left the house to meet her, and the girls were picked up by the “boyfriend” – who was in fact a 25-year-old Indian man.
Initially, Chloe thought the man was nice – “posher” than the other men she had met in the town centre. He took Chloe and her friend to a shop where he purchased a bottle of vodka before picking up one of his friends and taking the girls to a secluded location. During the journey, the men began pressuring the girls for sex. Chloe refused, stating that she was on her period, but the men replied that it did not matter. Night was falling when they arrived, and the “boyfriend” took Chloe’s friend out of the car, leaving Chloe alone with the other man. He proceeded to rape her on the back seats.
This incident took place in 2003. In 2022, Chloe took the two men to court, but neither were found guilty.
From this moment, Chloe’s life spiralled. At twelve years old, she began drinking heavily, smoking large amounts of cannabis, and taking harder drugs including ecstasy – “anything to block it out of her mind.” She would drink before school “just to get through the day” and her attendance dropped significantly. She and her friend would spend school hours in the town centre, “walking around until somebody picked them up in a car, somebody bought them alcohol or somebody gave them drugs.” There were times when Chloe would be missing for up to three days, during which time she was passed between taxis, drugged, abused, and raped. In every case, the perpetrators were Muslims, and primarily Pakistani.
On one occasion, Chloe was abducted by an abuser – who was driving drunk – and taken to a graveyard. He gave Chloe – still twelve years old – whiskey before forcing himself on her and raping her. He withdrew before ejaculation, and forced the empty whiskey bottle into Chloe’s vagina, where it shattered. Chloe admitted herself to A&E, but no questions were asked about how she had sustained such an injury. She was examined, the glass was removed, and she was discharged.
Chloe was questioned by police due to her absence on a number of occasions. Each time, she was asked where she had been, who she had been with, and what she had been doing. She replied that she had been having sex with adult males in cars. Rather than opening an investigation and pursuing her abusers, the police dismissed Chloe as a prostitute. They asked her whether she was consenting to the sexual activity and, despite Chloe telling them that she did not know the definition of the word “consent,” they reported that she had been.
The police found Chloe, as well as other missing children, in cars with the gang members on multiple occasions, but let the gang members go without so much as questioning them. On one occasion, Chloe was in the town centre and was identified as a missing child by a police officer who questioned where she had been. Chloe told this police officer about the full extent of the abuse, and the response of the police officer was that nothing could be done, and Chloe was let go.
In response to her truancy and deteriorating behaviour, the school regularly placed Chloe in isolation and compelled her to attend additional after-school classes every day. This did little to improve her emotional state, and she continued to spend time with her friend and her friend’s “boyfriend.”
This went on for a number of years. The “boyfriend” would supply the girls with alcohol and drugs, as well as introducing them to his friends, who were exclusively South Asian men. On one occasion, he took the girls to his place of work – a textiles factory – where he raped Chloe. Following this incident, Chloe stopped spending time with the friend who, up until this point, had accompanied her throughout her exploitation.
By this time, Chloe had become so accustomed to her “lifestyle” of spending time with the Muslim gangs that she continued to do so without her friend. On one occasion, following another late return home, her mother “grounded” her for two months. Fearing further abuse from her stepfather, Chloe walked to a nearby social services office while her mother was at work and reported him. Chloe was interviewed by the social workers about the abuse, after which her mother and stepfather were arrested and questioned. Both denied that the abuse was taking place, and were released without charge.
Chloe made further appeals to social services and was eventually removed from the house and placed in foster care. She lived with a couple who cared for several other foster children and, though she found them “snobby” and judgemental, found some semblance of stability with them – but it did not last long. She was still living in the same town, so when she went into the town centre – as she often did both alone and with the foster carers – the Muslim gangs would recognise and target her. She remained at the same school, and because she now lived further away, the foster carers paid for taxis to take her there. She would ask the taxi drivers to drop her near the school and, rather than attending, would walk to one of the neighbourhoods where the Muslim gangs spent their time. The gangs would take her into their taxis, ply her with drugs and alcohol, and sexually abuse her.
Around the age of 13, Chloe disclosed to social services that she was being sexually abused by gangs of Muslim men. In response, social services did not intervene, but rather talked to Chloe about contraception and sexual health. One social worker started regularly taking Chloe to a sexual health clinic, where she was diagnosed with chlamydia in her throat and vagina, gonorrhea, genital warts, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Neither the social workers nor the clinic staff questioned or reported this. The police were aware of Chloe’s activities, but instead of targeting those responsible for her abuse, they routinely failed to question them – let alone pursue further action – when Chloe was found in cars and houses with them.
Chloe was soon moved to a different foster placement with a far more protective carer. On one occasion, a gang came to the foster home searching for Chloe, and the carer fought them in the street to protect her.
Around the time Chloe turned 14, a social worker approached her about her ongoing sexual exploitation. This was one of the first times this had happened, and Chloe was relieved that her abuse was finally being addressed. However, rather than offering a solution, the social worker instead told Chloe that the producers of Emmerdale were looking for a young actress to play a victim of child sexual exploitation, and asked whether she would be interested in auditioning for the role given her experience. Following this exchange, Chloe – upset, angry, and in a state of disbelief – ran away from the foster home, and, after being abducted by a Muslim gang, was missing for six months.
Over this period she was trafficked across the length and breadth of Britain. She was taken to “house after house” and raped and abused by “guy after guy after guy after guy.” The men who abused her paid money to the gang, which treated her as little more than a commodity. She was reported missing and her photograph was shown on TV. Her abusers remarked on this – “you’re that girl off the TV that’s missing” – but her whereabouts were never reported to the police. Chloe describes a cycle of grooming, rape, and drug and alcohol abuse – this went on until, eventually, she was located by the police.
When the police found her, she was in a car with a South Asian Muslim man. The man was let go without charge, and she was returned to her mother’s house. Chloe’s relationship with her mother had completely broken down by this point, so she continued to run away and her psychological state deteriorated further. Following another period of grooming and sexual exploitation by a Muslim gang, Chloe was taken into police custody and transported to a secure unit at a children’s home.
She describes the home as being like a prison. Every aspect of her life was controlled and surveilled, and she was routinely subjected to bodily examinations, including full cavity searches. Chloe found the experience highly traumatic. She remained there for 9 months, by which time she was almost 15. Social services determined that she was well enough to be released, and she was placed in foster care not far from where she had been living before. Chloe describes the new carers as a positive and encouraging presence in her life, and – in spite of her proximity to the sites of her abuse and exploitation – Chloe found stability and security living with them. She enrolled in a full-time hairdressing and beauty course at a nearby college, and for the next two years, Chloe describes her life as “fantastic.”
As Chloe approached her 18th birthday, social services notified her that the foster care would soon end. They identified a house for her and, after parting ways with her carer, she moved in and got a retail job to support herself. Despite having little experience taking care of herself, Chloe’s life remained generally stable through this period.
Eventually, Chloe reestablished contact with the friend whom she had been abused with as a young child. She invited her over to her house, and when she arrived, she was accompanied by a group of Muslim men – all of whom remembered Chloe from past abuse.
Immediately, Chloe’s life was thrown back into chaos. The men refused to leave, and – in Chloe’s words – “it was no longer my quiet little house. It was their house.” They smashed windows, kicked in doors, left the house an “absolute wreck,” and sexually abused Chloe. One of the men – a previous abuser – pinned her down, pulled his trousers down, and “sat on her face,” orally raping her on her own sofa as the rest of the gang watched.
Chloe returned to drugs and alcohol to cope. Though she was still working in retail, her ability to work was rapidly declining. During one shift, one of her colleagues – someone she was friends with – jokingly pinched her bottom. Chloe, traumatised by the years of abuse, punched him in the face in the middle of the shop. She was brought before management and tried to argue her case, but was fired. Left with no income, Chloe spiralled further. The Muslim gang was still occupying her house, and, with nowhere else to go and no ability to remove them, she remained there with them. They routinely drugged, abused, and raped her, including with objects including soft drink cans, keys, and a baseball bat.
Before long they started to pay her bills to consolidate their presence in her home. On a number of occasions, they brought young children into Chloe’s house to abuse them. Chloe recalls a number of occasions when boys under the age of 18 from the Muslim community were pressured and bullied by their older friends and relatives into raping her. Chloe was forced to commit crimes, including insurance fraud and the holding of drugs. On one occasion she contacted the police to report an assault that was taking place in her house and, when they arrived, Chloe was threatened with arrest rather than the gang members as the property was registered in her name.
One evening, an associate of the gang from a neighbouring town arrived at the house. A notorious sex trafficker, he soon began taking Chloe to bars and nightclubs in the surrounding area. There, he would spike her with heroin before handing her over to men who sexually assaulted and raped her.
Chloe became addicted to opiates and her health deteriorated rapidly. She became anorexic, weighing just five stone at the age of 18. The use of heroin was a method of control by the gang, as it left her with no ability to defend herself physically. Her daily existence became a relentless cycle of rape, exploitation, and violence.
Eventually, a social worker visited Chloe and was shocked by both her appearance and the conditions in which she was living. Concerned for her welfare, she took Chloe to an addiction clinic, where tests revealed an extremely high concentration of opiates in her system. Chloe was prescribed medication to manage her opioid dependency and gradually weaned herself off the drugs.
Around this time, Chloe reconnected with a childhood friend, and their friendship soon developed into a romantic relationship. Her boyfriend became aware of the ongoing abuse and, with the help of his father, paid off Chloe’s remaining rent and moved her out of her squalid house. Chloe moved in with him, after which she got another job in retail. For a short period, Chloe’s life was relatively stable – but, due to her unresolved trauma, she soon returned to drinking heavily, smoking cannabis, and gambling.
Her workplace was close to her first foster home, and before long she came back into contact with members of the gang that had abused her at that time. The cycle of grooming, exploitation, and abuse soon resumed. Her relationship with her boyfriend broke down, and, out of desperation, she re-established contact with her mother – who had left her predatory husband – and soon moved back in with her.
One night, Chloe was out with members of the gang and drinking heavily. Upon her return to her mother’s house, her mother reported her to the police. The police arrested Chloe while she was changing into her pyjamas, and she was taken to the police station drunk and half-naked. She was kept in a cell until two am the following morning, at which point she was released. They did not provide her with any clothes or transportation back to her mother’s house. She tried to contact her ex-boyfriend, but he did not respond. Chloe, then 19, was left stranded.
She wandered around the neighbourhood for several hours before encountering a gang member who had previously abused her. Cold and desperate, she got into his car, and, for the following weeks, was trafficked across the country.
Eventually, Chloe identified a new house to move into. Despite their dysfunctional relationship, her mother agreed to sign the rental agreement as Chloe’s guarantor, as Chloe – then without income – knew she would not be able to afford the rent. After she moved in, she became aware of the fact that she was the only White British person in her neighbourhood. Every other resident was South Asian. As a result, the gangs discovered where she was living, and once again treated her house as if it was their own. The cycle of abuse continued, and Chloe’s emotional state deteriorated significantly. Chloe was taken to hospital after a suicide attempt, and, while there, she discovered that she was pregnant.
The father of the child – a Pakistani Muslim illegal migrant – moved into Chloe’s home. Chloe was subsequently coerced into converting to Islam and forced into marriage, both to legitimise the pregnancy in the eyes of her abuser and to assist him in securing a visa. Chloe’s behaviour became tightly controlled. She was forced to wear a hijab, she was prohibited from looking out the windows of her home, and, if she misbehaved in the eyes of her “husband,” he would “beat her black and blue” – something that happened “every day.”
Chloe’s child was born with multiple health problems, including a defective kidney, due to the deteriorated condition of Chloe’s womb as a result of the sexual abuse. Nevertheless, becoming a mother gave Chloe a renewed determination to get her life back on track. She reported the father of her child to the police after he assaulted the child, and he was removed from the property. She stopped taking drugs. She was “focused,” and, for the first time, the gangs left her alone.
One evening, she went out with a friend who lived across the road. Chloe, now a mother, did not drink heavily, but her friend became heavily intoxicated. A group of Asian men started speaking to them, and offered to take Chloe and her friend home. Chloe was suspicious of them, but, for the sake of her friend, agreed. Instead of taking them home, however, they were taken to a hotel.
Chloe, who was not drunk, protested, and encouraged her friend – who was “paralytic” – to leave with her. Chloe warned her friend about what she suspected was going to happen, but her friend refused to leave. Chloe, thinking of her daughter and seeking to protect herself, reluctantly left without her. The following day, Chloe’s friend told Chloe that she had been raped by the men.
This incident represented a turning point in Chloe’s life. She decided that she needed to leave her home town for good and “get as far away from these Asian men as possible.” By chance, she reconnected on Facebook with a man she had known in her early childhood – an old colleague of her mother who she describes as “one of the only adult men in my life who never harmed me or treated me badly.” She told him about everything she had been through and her desire to leave. He lived in Scotland and she was invited to visit him for the weekend, which she did.
After returning home, she sought support from Women’s Aid, who managed to secure her a property in Scotland. With nothing but her daughter and a small bag, she left her home town, leaving a lifetime of abuse and exploitation behind, and moved to Scotland, where she resides to this day.
Chloe personally knows at least twenty other girls from her area who were predated on by the Muslim gangs who abused her. The pattern was always the same: grooming, drugging, trafficking, abuse, and rape. Furthermore, Chloe describes being taken into mosques where imams would describe non-Muslims as “infidels” and preach that white women who dressed “inappropriately” were “free game.”
Chloe believes that the local police, social services, NHS, and government were all fully aware of what was happening, including the racialised nature of the crimes, but that they did not intervene for two reasons: because they “could not be bothered with the paperwork,” and because “they did not want to be seen as racist.” Chloe blames these bodies, and their “major push for diversity,” for her abuse.
Chloe says that “if I can save just even one more child, girl or boy, from going through any of this, then I’ve done my job.”
Inquiry panellist :
“Do you know how many men abused you over that period if you had to guess ?”
Chloe :
“Hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.”
Fiona -
Fiona grew up in a highly abusive household marked by domestic violence, severe emotional abuse, and repeated suicide attempts by her mother, which Fiona witnessed. Despite exceptional academic ability, she developed serious mental health difficulties, self-harm behaviours, and suicidal ideation from a young age.
After escalating abuse and failed disclosures, Fiona entered care at the age of 13. She was placed in a children’s home that had already been identified as high-risk for sexual exploitation in a television documentary prior to her arrival. Inadequate supervision meant she went missing repeatedly. At 13, she was groomed by adult Pakistani men, whom she estimates were aged between 24 and 45. The grooming began with affection and alcohol, quickly progressing to rape, drug dependency, threats, and trafficking.
Care staff negligence was extreme. Abusers would sit in cars outside waiting for the girls, openly converse with staff, and even phone the home to inquire about them. One care worker told Fiona’s mother that her boss had described recording the men’s car registration plates as “above her pay grade,” warning that she would lose her job if she did so. Fiona believes the staff were aware of what was happening but felt powerless to stop it rather than being actively complicit. Nevertheless, the children’s home received £5,000 per week to care for her and failed miserably. Fiona suspects the management avoided proper investigation for fear of being labelled racist.
Only the police took any formal action, issuing “harbouring notices” to the men – official warnings stating they had no permission to associate with, contact, or house a vulnerable child. However, no further action followed. When Fiona’s mother called the police to report her daughter missing and mentioned a history of abuse by Asian men, the call handler told her: “You can’t describe them as Asian men because that’s racist. You should just be glad your child is being taught a different culture.” On one occasion, a police officer returned Fiona to the house where the abuse was occurring and told the men to “have fun with her.” On another occasion, police instructed the abusers that if they could persuade Fiona to sign herself out of care, the police would stop bothering them.
The gang then tried to convince her to do so, intending to traffic her to Kashmir. She was only prevented from leaving the country because she did not have a passport.
Between 2008 and 2012, Fiona was repeatedly raped by multiple men connected to organised grooming networks. She was often kept in a house known as a “party house,” where between 10 and 20 men would attend at one time. On one occasion, she was encouraged to bring her friends because the owner had relatives visiting from Birmingham to celebrate Eid and “expected girls to be there.” Within the house, the girls were routinely referred to as “white slags,” while the men wanted Pakistani girls kept “pure” for marriage.
The gangs reportedly discussed fears that the English Defence League (EDL) would arrive armed, so they kept baseball bats for protection. They also allegedly spoke of attending EDL demonstrations with weapons.
Fiona was not only trafficked and raped across multiple cities in the UK but was also forced to traffic drugs. Drugs, intimidation, and violence were used to control her. She was made to clean up the knives from the scene of two fatal stabbings. She was present during a shootout. Her abusers bragged to her that they had hidden dead bodies in a certain location. A few days later, Fiona recalls the news reporting on a body being recovered from the same location that the abusers had disclosed to her. As a result, threats of violence carried enormous weight.
At 14, Fiona was abused by a man known as ‘Rambo.’ He had entered Britain illegally in the back of a lorry. Previously castrated in Pakistan as punishment for child abuse, he had then fled to the Philippines, where he allegedly attacked multiple women and children with a large knife – the origin of his nickname. Rambo was locked in a room with two girls and subjected them to extreme sexual torture. This case illustrated that, in some instances, the sexual abuse of children was driven more by humiliation and control than by sexual gratification.
At 15, Fiona became pregnant while in a mixed-sex care home. Her son was later removed and adopted due to the ongoing exploitation risks, yet Fiona herself was left in the same dangerous environment. The abuse continued into her adulthood. It only stopped when she turned 18, leaving her with profound physical and psychological trauma, including PTSD, substance dependency, and long-term health damage.
Fiona states that the greatest harm came not only from the abusers but from institutional disbelief, neglect, and punishment that actively enabled the ongoing exploitation. In total, she estimates she was abused by between 50 and 100 men. Of those, only two were not Pakistani.
Fiona :
“I was beaten regularly. I was drugged, filmed being raped, and the footage was distributed. I sustained broken bones, facial injuries and severe trauma.”
“I was subjected to racial abuse in the community and blamed by families of perpetrators.”
Whitney -
‘Whitney’ grew up in a vulnerable household. Her mother suffered from severe mental health issues, and her father was absent from her life.
She was first groomed and sexually abused at the age of 15 by two adult Pakistani brothers. One of the brothers, Whitney recalls, acted as a boyfriend figure. Both brothers would regularly take her to a flat in Birmingham, supply her with alcohol, and in her words she would “have sex with them.”
Their interactions with Whitney soon turned violent. They began beating her and, on one occasion, held a hot iron to her face. Whitney recalls that the brothers stopped contacting her after they arrived at her house to collect her and found all of her uncles sitting on the wall outside. After that incident, they never came back. She cannot remember exactly how or why her uncles were there, but she believes her mother had asked them to intervene.
Many years later, Whitney’s daughter began self-harming at age eleven and even attempted suicide. Her phone contained sexually explicit messages. Whitney’s daughter told her there was a “sex room” at school run by the older boys. Deeply concerned for her daughter, Whitney contacted social services. They offered little support beyond talking through the problems. In one instance, social services accidentally sent her six other children’s case files instead of her daughter’s, which left her deeply distrustful of their ability to help.
Whitney’s daughter was coerced into sending a sexual image, which was then circulated across multiple schools, the local community, and eventually the internet. This led to her receiving unwanted attention from adult men of various ethnicities and from multiple countries. From that point on, Whitney’s daughter began going missing regularly. These disappearances were directly linked to sexual demands and exploitation by older boys and adult men.
She was threatened with violence if she contacted the police and sometimes returned home with items of clothing missing. Whitney repeatedly reported her concerns to the police and social services, clearly stating that she believed her daughter was being sexually exploited. Police responses were often delayed, statements were not taken, and investigations were closed without further action. Social services refused to relocate the family, downgraded the risk level, and eventually closed the case despite ongoing exploitation.
Whitney herself was blamed, and her own past was used to undermine her credibility as a parent. Her family received repeated threats, including warnings that their house would be burned down, faces would be slashed, and machetes would be used. Later, Whitney discovered that her daughter had been placed on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as a trafficking victim – without her being informed. The NRM is the UK's official framework for identifying, referring, and supporting victims of human trafficking and modern slavery and serves as a recognition by a designated professional that an individual is a potential victim of human trafficking or modern slavery.
Whitney :
“My Daughter told me after a while there was a sex room in the school.
I told the school about it but they completely shut it down and said she was lying.”
Sally -
‘Sally’ is the mother of a daughter who was found guilty of nine counts of perverting the course of justice for lying about being groomed by an Asian grooming gang and sentenced to eight years in prison. Despite this, Sally believes there is evidence to suggest her daughter was a genuine victim of the gangs.
Sally described a previously stable, working family life until housing instability and family stress coincided with changes in her daughter’s behaviour. The house the family were buying fell through, but they had already moved out of their family home and all their possessions were in storage. A family friend was able to rent them a part-renovated property on a short-term basis, but it was not ideal for a family with four children. It was only meant to be temporary, but the family ended up staying there for ten months.
Her daughter began making up stories, such as claiming her mother and stepdad were going away and leaving her to look after her five-year-old brother at school. This resulted in school involvement in their family life. The stresses the household was under led to arguments that brought in both the police and social services. After leaving school at 16, Sally’s daughter began working at a local pub.
On one occasion she was invited to a party. Sally received a call later that evening from one of her daughter’s friends saying that her daughter was lying on the pavement outside the property. If Sally couldn’t pick her up, they were going to take her to the bus stop and leave her there, as she was making too much noise. When her mother found her lying on the ground, she was making a horrendous wailing sound and kept saying not to touch her. Her mother recognised that something was seriously wrong and took her to hospital.
Sally’s daughter told the nurse carrying out the examination that she had been sexually assaulted. The hospital notes recorded that her genitalia were swollen and red. The hospital reported the incident to the police. Sally’s daughter then received threats via Snapchat, became scared about the outcome of the case, and withdrew from the process. Around the same time, social services closed their case on the family. Sally believes her daughter did not want to invite more trouble into the household.
It later emerged in court that they had all been smoking cannabis. Sally believes her daughter had participated and that something had happened to her, but she was found guilty of lying about being raped.
Sally’s daughter then began working as a kitchen assistant at a care home and a glass collector at a nightclub, in addition to her pub job. After turning 18, she was able to work behind the bar at the nightclub, where her behaviour began to change. She would return home with cuts and bruises. On one occasion she came back with a black eye and said there had been a fight in the nightclub and she had been hit accidentally. She appeared more tired and distressed than usual.
Sally began to notice that her daughter’s phone would ring regularly, with “Asian” men’s names appearing on the screen. When asked about them, her daughter tried to hide the calls. The bar manager stopped her daughter from working on the main floor because she was small and they struggled to keep track of her. They also ensured she was always paired with an older member of staff, as the “Asian” men would harass her if she was working alone. One “Asian” man gifted her a gold chain.
Sally’s daughter began saying she wanted to move away from home. She had regularly travelled to a nearby town by train. Sally would pick her up and drop her off at the station, and she never appeared to have been drinking or using drugs. One day, Sally returned home to find her daughter had left with her possessions and was ignoring her calls. She had told work colleagues that she had moved because her stepfather was harming her, but this was not true.
After a few days of investigation, Sally managed to find where her daughter had moved to. When she arrived at the flat, she found her daughter with two police officers to whom she was reporting an allegation of rape. When her daughter handed in her phone as evidence, the police found hundreds of messages from “Asian” men. They believed she was being groomed. She was later found guilty of lying about the rape she had reported.
Over the course of the following year, Sally reported her daughter missing thirty-nine times. She would often turn up in various towns across the region, battered, bruised, intoxicated or on drugs. She was usually without underwear and spent increasing amounts of time in hospital. One police force made a referral to the NRM, believing she was a victim of trafficking. Another police force repeatedly arrested her and seized her phone, which meant the referral agency could not contact her as her number kept changing.
One incident involved Sally’s daughter being locked in a room above an Indian restaurant, with the man refusing to let her leave. The police ignored it, believing she was lying. Another incident involved an “Asian” man following her, trying to grab her and take her away. Thankfully she was with her sister and friends, who quickly put her in a taxi and sent her home. That same man was later arrested for breaking into a woman’s house and sexually assaulting her while she slept – nevertheless, the police still insisted Sally’s daughter had been lying about the earlier incident. The police believed she had a mental health condition and was deliberately self-harming and putting herself in dangerous situations. They wanted to have her sectioned, but a doctor disagreed, noting that she still had capacity.
Another incident involved a different “Asian” man who refused to leave Sally’s daughter’s flat. Police told him to leave but asked no questions. He left behind a balaclava, yet the police showed no interest despite him carrying it while visiting a young woman. After her flat door was kicked down in yet another incident while she was missing, she returned to her mother’s home.
Sally’s daughter later explained that she had moved away to keep her family safe. She claimed she had been told that if she did not do as her abusers said, they would harm her brother, rape her sister, and firebomb the house. She had lied to her colleagues about her stepdad to avoid bringing repercussions on the family.
She went missing again. The police stated they believed she was making the whole thing up and injuring herself, so they charged her with perverting the course of justice. Part of her bail conditions required her not to leave Sally’s house. The following week, her daughter attempted suicide by overdose. She went missing one final time and was found in a field with injuries to her head and ear, a severed finger, and numerous cuts and bruises.
Following this, she wrote a post on Facebook alleging that she had been a victim of grooming gangs. The post went viral. Within half an hour, the police arrested her and she was sent to prison.
Following her daughter’s conviction, the family experienced sustained harassment and intimidation, particularly from one Muslim man. Sally reports repeated failures by the police to protect them. She believes her daughter was a vulnerable young woman who lied at times but was nevertheless groomed.
Marlon -
‘Marlon’ is the father of a daughter who was a repeated victim of grooming as well as being repeatedly failed by authorities.
Marlon reported his 14-year-old daughter Scarlett missing a number of times because she was being groomed and exploited. The police informed social services that what Marlon was doing was appropriate as he was acting to safeguard his daughter. However, social services did not accept the police’s assessment and instead dragged out the investigation for three months. During that time his daughter disclosed concerns to her school, which resulted in social services attending Marlon’s home. While his daughter was present they told him that if he tried to stop her from leaving the house she should call social services or the police.
Social services undermining his parental authority resulted in her missing episodes escalating dramatically. Social services effectively gave her permission to go missing, and the case was then closed without meaningful intervention. Marlon placed a formal complaint to social services stating that he was struggling to cope with his daughter's missing episodes. The social worker assigned to him following this openly stated to him that they were only taking the case because of his complaint. This made him feel like the problem rather than a parent concerned with safeguarding his daughter from abuse.
On one occasion Marlon stood in front of the door to prevent his daughter from leaving late at night resulting in her repeatedly kicking him and breaking three of his fingers. He reported this to social services who simply stated he should walk away when she becomes violent. Even after showing them the bruises on his back that he received as he walked away they did not change the advice they gave. Marlon remains convinced that if his child were male and he were female the response would have been different.
Marlon would often spend his evenings driving in search of his daughter until three or four am while having work the following day, which his employer was not supportive of. He often reported her missing to the police, who would sometimes turn up to his house many hours later. On one occasion he saw footage of the police saying not to bother even waking him. This made him feel more like a problem rather than it being the safeguarding emergency that it was.
Scarlett was unlawfully excluded from school due to grooming-related behaviour and assigned a new school where the grooming gang operated. A multi-agency risk management meeting was eventually convened with children’s services and the police’s Missing from Home team. While the meeting was ongoing one of the police officers in attendance told Marlon to stop reporting his daughter missing. Marlon challenged this which resulted in the police officer shouting at him in front of all in attendance. The officer has since been dismissed. The social worker and manager present did not intervene but privately acknowledged he was right to continue to report his daughter missing. They refused to launch a formal complaint against the officer.
Shortly after this his daughter went missing for several days and was eventually found at Marlon’s mother’s house, unkempt, distressed and stating that she had been raped. Care staff returned her to the location of the rape, thereby destroying forensic opportunities, and failed to report it to police until days later. Marlon had to make his own referral to the rape crisis centre, by which time forensic evidence was lost.
The perpetrator was arrested but bailed with the condition not to contact Marlon’s daughter. Immediately upon leaving the station he called her and threatened her life. He was an adult and drug dealer and his associates soon began attending Marlon’s home. His daughter was terrified of them. An older woman began to groom and manipulate Marlon’s daughter under the guise of friendship.
After another missing episode Marlon was able to trace his daughter to a specific property. Despite repeated calls and reports of men entering the property both police and social services failed to remove her or issue an abduction warning notice. His daughter was later found to be the victim of criminal exploitation, including drug supply, prostitution and being forced to dig up a firearm. These acts were directed by the older woman amongst others. At this point the impact on Marlon was catastrophic. He was physically exhausted, anxious, depressed and lived in constant fear. He was attacked by masked individuals in his home with the police response delayed and dismissive.
Marlon’s daughter was eventually taken into secure care where she was subjected to further abuse, including sexual abuse by staff and other children, neglect, and safeguarding failures. Marlon made multiple complaints. At a court hearing, social services attempted to place his daughter on a child protection plan for emotional abuse and neglect by Marlon himself. However, the judge intervened and ordered this to be amended to be recorded as beyond parental control.
Marlon’s daughter continued to be moved between unsuitable placements. She was groomed repeatedly, trafficked, forced into drug supply, and raped by adult men. She became pregnant as a result of rape. The handling of her termination by professionals was traumatic and negligent. Police later charged Scarlett with intent to supply Class A drugs, despite her being a victim of trafficking and on the National Referral Mechanism. Scarlett was placed in a unit run entirely by male Muslim staff where she was groomed again. Racist abuse and extremist comments were made to her. Marlon again raised concerns which were ignored.
Despite his repeated attempts to help his daughter, he has experienced many instances of violence from her as a result of the trauma and grooming. He has experienced many assaults, received black eyes and had to sleep barricaded in his room. He repeatedly requested domestic abuse support but was refused because he was a male parent. He has been forced to complete parenting courses and blamed for his daughter’s abuse.
The whole experience has harmed Marlon financially, emotionally and psychologically. He states it has destroyed his life. He is no longer the person he used to be. Marlon’s case highlights that parents can also be victims of both grooming networks as well as widespread institutional failure.
If you would like to hear Marlon’s story in greater detail, he has recently published a book about his experiences titled In Plain Sight (2026).
Marlon :
“Scarlett went missing again for several days. When she was eventually found, she was unkempt, distressed and disclosed she had been raped. Shockingly, Edge of Care staff returned her to the location where she had been raped and failed to report the offence to police or duty social workers until days later.”
Wallace -
‘Wallace’s’ early childhood in Scotland was marked by poverty, instability and a lack of consistent adult protection. His mother suffered from mental health and substance misuse problems. She struggled to comprehend the situations she put her son in and often failed to intervene, which allowed Wallace’s abuse to continue. Wallace’s mother psychologically and emotionally abused him throughout his childhood.
From a young age, adult men moved in and out of his life, and he was encouraged to refer to them as “dad” or “uncle.” This made it seem normal that adult men would be around him as a child. He was moved around many different home environments and learned to accept situations without question. His early experiences made him believe that adults could enter his personal space without consent, that fear should be tolerated, and that he had no control.
Wallace’s earliest memory of abuse occurred when he was four or five years old, when an adult came into his bedroom at night and got into bed with him. He could not identify who it was but instinctively knew it was wrong. His main abusers were his mother’s partner and the partner’s brother, who both exercised authority over Wallace and were treated as trusted adults. They were connected to a biker group in the area. Not all members of the group were involved in the abuse, but a core group of men were.
Wallace recalls being taken to a particular house where multiple men were present. It had a dark atmosphere, lit by candles, possibly snake-shaped candle holders placed near the fireplace. The setting felt deliberate and staged. Multiple adults were sitting around watching him, which instinctively made him feel unsafe. He was led into a bedroom, restrained and raped by an adult.
His mother’s partner’s brother spoke to him as if what had just happened was normal, despite the considerable pain and emotional distress he felt. Wallace asked if he would receive a toy for what had happened. He did receive one, but it was cheap and insignificant. Even then he realised that there was no real compensation for what had happened to him. The same pattern of abuse occurred on multiple occasions.
Wallace recalls seeing other boys and girls present who were usually restrained and drugged. He also recalls being drugged himself and losing consciousness. He would often wake alone or with other abused children, disoriented and distressed. This has caused long-term psychological damage.
At one point the police raided the property. They took Wallace outside and showed him adults one by one, asking if he recognised them. He had been coached to say these men were his “uncles,” and that is what he said. He associated authority figures with fear and wanted to avoid saying what he believed might be the wrong thing. As a result, the police intervention did not protect him. No safeguarding followed and he returned to the abusive environment.
The signs of abuse were there and only reinforced Wallace’s view that speaking out would not lead to safety. As an adult he eventually attempted to report what had happened to him, a disclosure which took years. He expected to be treated as a victim of serious childhood sexual abuse, but instead his disclosure was treated as a mental health issue. He was asked to provide psychiatric and medical notes before any proper investigation would take place. The lack of seriousness from the authorities resulted in Wallace’s statements being recorded improperly.
Due to this experience he made complaints to the police, to professional bodies including the General Medical Council, and to other oversight organisations. Each process was slow, fragmented and obstructive and continued for years without resolution. During this time he was forced to relive his experiences repeatedly while being met with scepticism. At no point was his well-being considered, which further compounded his trauma as he once again felt dismissed, disbelieved and unprotected.
Owing to Wallace’s abuse he has experienced long-term psychological harm. This harm has affected his education, relationships, sense of self-worth and his ability to feel safe. He wishes for his abusers and the authorities who failed to act to be held to account, and for his story to help protect other children from similar harm.
Sebastian -
‘Sebastian’ was raised in Scotland in a stable household. Sebastian’s mother held down a professional job, owned her own home and car, and the family regularly went on holidays together. Despite this relatively secure background, which was not typical of abuse victims, Sebastian was raped and abused from the age of six by family members – without Sebastian’s mother’s knowledge. These family members instilled in Sebastian the belief that, to be safe, you had to give them what they wanted. This led Sebastian to develop a transactional view of interpersonal relationships.
At age eleven, Sebastian was introduced by these abusive family members to a local café owner. The owner gave Sebastian free food, lifts in his car, and free cinema tickets to build trust and a sense of obligation. From there, they began prostituting Sebastian out to a number of people. These included seemingly respectable professionals such as estate agents, solicitors, care support workers for children, and even police officers. Even at boarding school, Sebastian was raped, assaulted, and groomed by staff and connected adults, with Sebastian’s injuries often ignored by medical professionals. All of Sebastian’s abusers were White British.
In adulthood and during the final years of the abuse, Sebastian became aware of the wider operation of the grooming networks, both in a quiet rural area and in the city. At the age of 40, Sebastian was finally able to escape a cycle of abuse that had lasted for nearly four decades. Following years of abuse, Sebastian, born a biological female, transitioned to the opposite sex and now identifies as a trans man. Sebastian transitioned socially at 41 and medically at 48. However, when describing the abuse experienced as a child, it remains important for Sebastian to recognise that these events occurred while living as a girl and perceived as such.
Sebastian acknowledges that this transition was, at least in part, a consequence of the abuse experienced, and feels safer from further abuse when presenting as a man. Sebastian recognises the profound impact trauma can have on a person’s life and believes that different people find different ways to cope. For some, that may mean choosing a particular career or relationship or making unhealthy choices by using substances or alcohol; for Sebastian, transition and finding peace in being “Seb” became the pathway to recovery.
Sebastian describes healing from trauma as a form of transformation. For Sebastian, that transformation has involved a change of personal identity and finding a sense of safety never known while living as a female. Sebastian understands that others may not fully understand the paths people take to cope with trauma, but hopes that at the very least, they will try to understand. Sebastian now advocates for other survivors, with the aim of protecting vulnerable people and helping to develop local measures to prevent child abuse.
Anna -
‘Anna’ was raised in a stable, middle-class household with both parents present. She first experienced abuse at the age of 13 by a perpetrator who was almost 18, whom she met through friends. He began their interactions with what is known as “love-bombing”: he complimented her, messaged her regularly, offered to buy her gifts and alcohol, requested photographs of her, and discussed meeting up.
They arranged to meet at a local bus stop and go into town. At the last minute, he changed the plan and asked Anna to meet him at the end of a path in a nearby woodland. Upon arrival, his demeanour was cold and aggressive. He demanded that Anna perform oral sex on him and threatened to tell people she knew that she had sent him explicit photographs and that they had already had sex. Feeling threatened and fearful, she complied.
Unbeknownst to Anna, he had covertly recorded the incident. A few days later, multiple men added her on Snapchat and began mocking and taunting her. The perpetrator himself sent Anna the video, laughed, and told her he had shared it with his “boys and brothers,” leaving her feeling humiliated, fearful, and traumatised.Anna reported the assault to the police, but despite explaining the coercion and threats, the case was closed with no investigation into the creation or distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Rumours spread rapidly among Anna’s peers, and she was mocked and insulted in public. A year later, Anna encountered three Muslim brothers through a friend who was already being groomed and abused by them. They supplied her with alcohol and cigarettes in a public park and waited until she was heavily intoxicated before they began assaulting her. One of the brothers pulled her behind a tree and groped her chest despite her repeated refusals. When she tried to flee, he pushed her violently against the tree, causing her to hit her head and suffer a concussion.
The grooming continued through threats to her family, intimidation, verbal abuse, and cycles of affection, gifts, and coercion. Anna did not feel safe reporting the abuse to the police. On another occasion, she was again supplied with alcohol. One of the brothers grabbed her body violently, dug his fingernails into her, and yanked at her underwear repeatedly while laughing. Anna cried silently, feeling powerless to stop the assault. Afterwards, she tried to cut contact, but one of the brothers located her and banged on the door shouting while she hid inside until he left. Out of fear, she complied with further demands to meet the brothers, resulting in more assaults.
There was a period of nearly four years before any trial was held, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The perpetrators used this time to spread rumours portraying the abuse as consensual and to boast about the assaults. In the courtroom, the abuse and intimidation continued: they pulled faces, pointed and laughed at her, and made rude remarks about her appearance. This behaviour was not addressed by the court. One of the brothers was convicted of sexual assault and, as he was taken into custody, shouted “Allahu Akbar.”
At the sentencing, the brother’s sister shouted abuse at Anna, threatened her, and later breached her anonymity online. She blamed the jury, stating they were “all white.” She was eventually arrested and charged with malicious communications.
Anna states there is a broader failure to confront the role of ethnicity, religion, and cultural dynamics in organised sexual exploitation due to fear of accusations of racism.
Anna :
“As he left the dock to be taken down to custody, I was literally verbally assaulted by his sister who shouted Allahu Akbar.”
Taylor -
‘Taylor’ was introduced at the age of twelve to older men through her friends, many of whom were adult Muslim men. They began by giving her lifts home from school, sometimes in black cabs and sometimes in their own cars. Taylor saw the men buying gifts for her friends and initially wished she could receive gifts too.
On one occasion, instead of being taken to school, she was driven to one of the men’s sister’s houses and taught how to cook “Asian food.” Her friends spent more time with the men, but because her parents expected her to come straight home after school, she had limited contact with them beyond the lifts. She notes that her friends were already doing adult things such as smoking, drinking, and going to clubs, whereas she still had a more child-like disposition.
This dynamic continued for three years until she turned 15, when the abuse began. She started going with her friends to a restaurant run by Muslim men to help with deliveries. This escalated when one of the men who worked there – a 35-year-old Bangladeshi man – kissed her, causing her to run away. The same man later raped her when she was 15. Because her friends were also being abused, Taylor believed it was normal and that the man was her boyfriend. However, when she walked in on him with one of her friends, she realised this was not the case. After this, her behaviour changed dramatically: she began skipping school and drinking heavily.
During a family incident that led to police being called, Taylor’s father mentioned his suspicions that she was being abused by Asian men. The police responded that there was nothing they could do because she had “consented.” Police were called on multiple occasions regarding the abuse of Taylor and her friends, but they consistently refused to take action. The only time they helped her was when a group of “Asian” girls called the police; officers then returned Taylor and her friend home. Taylor believes they only intervened on that occasion because they did not want to face accusations of racism, given that the call came from “Asian” women.
By the age of 16, she had been introduced to many more men and was constantly harassed by them over the phone. Some men would initially appear kind and caring, leading her to believe they were in a relationship, only to lure her into situations where she would be gang-raped. They used a combination of false kindness, violent abuse, and alcohol to coerce and control her. Cars would stop in the street and demand she get in. She would be raped and then taken to the next abuser. She claims that on some nights she was passed to as many as ten different men, and estimates she was abused by around 100 men in total.
One common tactic used by the gangs was to send taxis to pick up drunk girls late at night. The driver would pretend to stop at a shop for a drink, then drive off, leaving the girl behind. A group of men would then “rescue” her, only to take her to a pre-arranged house for gang rape. A number of women also played a role in directing girls to their abusers in exchange for gifts and money. These women would trap the girls in properties or use violence to coerce them. Taylor has witnessed shootings, had knives held to her throat, and a gun held to her head. The gangs used the death of one of the other girls as leverage, threatening that anyone who spoke out would be next.
Realising she had to escape the abuse, Taylor made a detailed twenty-page statement to the police. She provided the phone numbers of more than one hundred “Asian” men and showed them messages in which the men threatened to rape her mother, beat her father, and burn down the family home. No investigation followed. Both her teachers at school and her GP were aware that something was seriously wrong but did not pursue their suspicions further.
Taylor :
“Before they raped me they would chant ‘Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Rahim’.”
(Translation: In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious and The Most Merciful.)
Marie -
‘Marie’ was born in a maternity home for unmarried mothers and grew up with her mother and grandmother. Her mother was cruel and abusive. She would deliberately make Marie cry, touch her inappropriately and behave violently. She would go into school with split lips, black eyes, bruising and marks over her body. She was never asked what had happened. She was not allowed to go outside, have friends and was regularly called degrading names.
Viewing her medical record as an adult, there were documented concerns from around a year old. There were notes of a rash “down below” with question marks recorded. There were further entries where it was described as a possible nappy rash, again with question marks. Seven years later a doctor made a note that she was a child that should be “kept an eye on.” Her mother refused to discuss her situation with Marie in the room. The record showed that she had significant bowel and gynaecological problems. Despite the signs of abuse, no safeguarding action was taken.
From around the age of seven Marie’s mother’s partner began grooming and sexually abusing her. He would bring her presents and then touch her inappropriately. Marie said to him what he was doing was “bad” and she did not like it. He told her that her mother had told him it was allowed. Her mother would ask “Marie” how she got on with him, demand she had thanked him “properly” and would threaten to get angry if not. She was complicit and the abuse continued for many years.
Her mother would deliberately shame her. When Marie began to menstruate she thought she was dying but her mother told her periods were what “dirty girls” had. She deliberately gave her sanitary pads that would leak so she could shame and punish her. If she had a spot on her face she would put a large blob of Germolene on her face and tell her not to remove it otherwise people would not know she was “dirty.” When she was unwell her mother would get her partner to rub Vapour Rub on her chest. Her mother would soak her underwear in bleach and make her wear it, which still causes Marie discomfort to this day. In one instance her mother and her partner forced a bottle inside her which was painful. Her mother would attach clothes pegs on her clitoris to see how long Marie could last. Marie’s mother also groomed her for others and she had to share a bed with her.
Marie was taken to another man’s house by her mother’s partner where she was raped. He began to traffic her to other perpetrators he knew through his work that operated like an organised group or gang. She became pregnant as a product of her abuse. On two occasions her mother took her to a woman’s house. There the woman used a knitting needle to perform the abortions. The woman’s husband also raped her.
She had bottle tops opened up inside of her vagina, then made to drink what was in the bottle when she was primary school age. There were instances where she ran into members of her grooming network who would lure her to a secluded location and rape her. The abuse she experienced included extreme sexual violence and degradation. She was raped repeatedly over the years, including anal rape. She was subjected to penetration with objects. She was urinated on. Her legs were held open. She was bitten on the back, cut on the leg and strangled. She has lasting injuries.
Marie attempted to end her own life at school by walking in front of a van. At college she drank a bottle of vodka and took a box of tablets in an attempt to kill herself. The college counsellor raised concerns and contacted her GP but nothing was done. Between leaving school and joining college, at seventeen, she was groomed by a 55-year-old police sergeant. He knew her background and claimed that he would catch her attacker and get justice for her. Instead, one evening he offered to take her out of the house and raped her. He went on to rape her on another occasion.
Upon becoming an adult she went to a Women’s Aid refuge for safety. They moved her to a safe location. On one occasion her mother and partner went to the Women’s Aid office, but they refused to give them information and introduced additional measures to protect Marie. While in the safe house she miscarried, a product of her mother’s partner. Following this Marie drunkenly called her mother and told her what had happened. Even after explaining who impregnated her, her mother said “We would have loved a baby in the house.”
She went to the police in recent years and told them that she was a survivor of child sexual abuse and they told her to go away and “sort her head out.” None of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.
Jane -
‘Jane’ grew up in a fractured household. Rarely present, her mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol, regularly using hash and cocaine during Jane’s childhood. She tried to end her own life on multiple occasions, and left altogether when Jane was seven.
Jane’s father had significant mental health issues, though until the age of five she describes a generally positive relationship with him. However, after meeting a new partner following the departure of Jane’s mother, he became colder, more distant, and increasingly abusive. He used his hands, a slipper, and a cane to hit Jane.
Jane’s mother re-entered her life with a new boyfriend when Jane was 13. The boyfriend was abusive towards Jane’s mother, and on one occasion raped her in front of Jane.
It was around this time that Jane’s mother’s drug dealer began grooming her via Facebook. He had become aware of the fact that Jane was self-harming, and presented himself as a sympathetic and supportive friend. Jane, vulnerable at the time, exchanged messages with him for several months.
Eventually, the drug dealer began asking Jane whether she had ever smoked cigarettes, taken drugs, or had sex. During one half term, he asked to meet with her. She agreed, and he came to Jane’s father’s house while Jane’s father was at work, armed with a kosh. He took her up to her bedroom and told her to strip naked. He said “you may be 13, but you’ve got the body of a woman” and raped her before promptly leaving.
From then, the drug dealer regularly called Jane and waited outside her school for her. Jane would hide in the staff room and tell teachers that she did not want to leave as she knew he would be waiting for her. The staff did not intervene and would force her to leave the school.
The drug dealer regularly took Jane to his girlfriend’s house where he would give Jane valium and cannabis. He would also show her the drugs he took, including heroin, methadone, and crack cocaine. The drug dealer sexually abused Jane “every day apart from the weekends” for several months.
Jane was misdiagnosed with a personality disorder at this time. She did not tell anyone about her relationship with the drug dealer until one night during an argument with her mother, who was drunk. Her mother said “I don’t know why you are like this” and Jane replied “because I am being fucked by a 50-year-old man and nobody has noticed.”
The following day, Jane returned from school to the police at her house. The police insisted that Jane, still just 13, would need to testify in court alone against the drug dealer. Intimidated, she did not wish to face him, and he was not prosecuted.
Following the revelation of Jane’s grooming and rape by the drug dealer, Jane’s father called her a “whore” and told her that he “wished she would just hurry up and kill herself.” The school accused Jane of using self-harm to manipulate her father. She was regularly placed in detention and threatened with expulsion due to falling behind with schoolwork. As a result, Jane became increasingly disobedient and suicidal.
At the age of 14, Jane began running away from school, taking drugs, and spending time with men older than her. On one occasion, she took an ‘overdose’ before school in an attempt to end her life . She was taken to hospital after the staff told her she would have done it in the woods or somewhere private if she actually wanted to die. Her father then came to the hospital and told her to “try harder next time as she was wasting everyone’s time. Later that day, she attempted suicide by cutting her own throat, but failed.
Jane was briefly taken into care at the hospital. She was discharged after less than a month, and “everybody acted like nothing had happened.” Her father would not accept her back into the family home, so she was left homeless. Jane spent a short period of time staying with friends, until social services was informed about her situation by her aunt. Jane refused to return home, disclosing to social services that she was being physically abused and showed them the bruises on her body. She was then briefly taken into foster care, before being moved into a children’s home until she was 16 years old. Jane was then moved into a semi-independent living facility for vulnerable young people.
After a few months, a female peer at the accommodation invited Jane to what she described as a “party.” This peer was coercive and intimidating, and Jane did not feel able to refuse. She was taken to a block of flats in Hounslow, and expected to be met with a group of people her own age. Instead, the flat was occupied by six or seven Somali men.
Jane was taken into the bathroom by the girl who had brought her there and instructed to shave. She was told that she was being sold to the men for sex. Jane did not want to participate, but complied out of fear. She was then sexually abused by one of the men, and made to sleep in a small child’s bed afterwards. The following morning, the girl who took Jane to the flat was paid by the men.
This occurred repeatedly over a period of months, sometimes with multiple other girls present. Jane was told that she needed to gain weight to be more desirable to the men. In response, Jane began purging, which developed into a severe eating disorder.
Jane was blackmailed with the threat of prison by the peer if she disclosed her exploitation to anyone. Violence and intimidation became commonplace at the semi-independent living facility. On one occasion, a young woman returned to the accommodation intoxicated and distressed, saying that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. The staff – who were aware that sexual exploitation was taking place on the site, but chose to do nothing about it – responded by accusing her of making it up.
Eventually, Jane disclosed her own sexual exploitation to accommodation staff, including the trafficking and exchange of money. She was told that what was happening did not constitute trafficking as she was over the age of 16. The police were not contacted and no action was taken. Jane was blackmailed by staff with the threat of being blamed for the exploitation of her and others if she took her complaints any further.
Jane’s eating disorder intensified, and she began self-harming again. She was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and admitted to a psychiatric hospital. While hospitalised, she disclosed the exploitation again. Police interviews took place, but – due to her being heavily medicated – Jane was treated as an unreliable witness and no further action was taken. She also disclosed in writing what was happening to her. It was removed from her most recent social care file, but the original clearly states she wrote a letter to them a year before she was hospitalised and her police interview matched the letter. The letter was not acted on by the authorities.
As a result of her abuse and eating disorder, Jane has developed endometriosis, which has resulted in the loss of half her uterus.
Jane has since learned that her records at the semi-independent living facility have been lost or destroyed despite statutory retention requirements. Even into adulthood, Jane has not received any closure and attempts to get justice have been met with delays, obstruction, and retraumatisation. Jane states that she believes that children remain at risk due to the culture of silence that persists across institutions that should be caring for them.
Jane :
“I later learned that key records from [the children's home] were missing or destroyed. Despite statutory retention requirements, my care file from that placement can not be produced. This has obstructed accountability.”
Leanne -
‘Leanne’ describes a childhood marked by extreme instability, domestic violence, fear, and early trauma. From a young age she was exposed to abuse within her family, including sexual abuse by her uncle, which severely damaged her ability to trust adults or disclose harm. Frequent moves, school disruption, ADHD, bullying, and exclusions compounded her vulnerability.
By the age of 14, Leanne was drawn into peer groups linked to significantly older men. These men were adult males, primarily of Kurdish, Iraqi, and other Muslim backgrounds, and they operated in groups. Grooming was systematic: alcohol, drugs, accommodation, and emotional manipulation were used to entrap her. She was taken to various houses in Sheffield (notably Pitsmoor) and other cities, where multiple girls were trafficked and sexually exploited.She was raped repeatedly, drugged, and on at least one occasion held captive and beaten for several days. She witnessed stabbings, shootings, and machete attacks, handled firearms as a child, and was forced into environments of extreme violence.
At 15, Leanne became pregnant by an adult Iraqi man. She miscarried, and later discovered that records had been falsified to suggest she was 16, thereby minimising the seriousness of the offence. Despite repeated missing episodes, police intelligence, and sexual exploitation strategy meetings, safeguarding failed. The council housing department refused to assist her due to her age. Child protection plans were implemented but did not remove her from danger.
Social services and police were aware she was associating with older Kurdish men and at high risk of sexual exploitation, yet intervention was weak and inconsistent. No perpetrator was prosecuted for her rape. She eventually escaped exploitation only after becoming a mother at 17 and moving away from the grooming network.
As an adult, Leanne lives with chronic physical and psychological harm, including trauma-related fibromyalgia. She has never received justice. She gave her evidence to ensure that what happened is finally acknowledged and not repeated.
Lilly -
‘Lilly’ was raised in a large, loving working family in the 1970s. Her family’s life was permanently destabilised when the council forced them out of their cottage to build flats. They were evicted from their home and moved into two council houses. This was the first time anyone in the family had lived on a council estate.
After moving onto the council estate, trouble began immediately. One older boy attempted to take Lilly’s hand from her mother when she was five years old. Her mother reported it to the police, but it was treated as a joke. Years later, the same person went on to rape a three-year-old.
This perpetrator and his brother then began targeting the family. They harassed Lilly’s mother and beat her father badly. This created an atmosphere of constant fear and chaos. The police frequently attended the family home, turning over belongings and breaking possessions while investigating false accusations.
Over time, Lilly and her siblings were taken into care. Siblings who returned home disclosed severe abuse in children’s homes, including rape, violence, humiliation, and intimidation. Lilly herself was groomed and repeatedly abducted and raped by a man from the age of six. He threatened to harm her sisters if she spoke.
Lilly’s sister was sexually abused by her own social worker at age twelve. This was actively covered up by management, who pretended he was in a relationship with another social worker to deflect suspicion. He gained legal guardianship of Lilly’s sister and eventually married her. He was paid by the local authority, and her sister never completed her education. Lilly witnessed children being selected by staff and handed over to foreign taxi drivers over many years.
In the children’s home, Lilly was violently assaulted and sexually abused by staff. Management figures dismissed or covered up the abuse. She also suffered numerous violent injuries from staff. The most serious was a head injury that resulted in lasting neurological damage. Later in adulthood, she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. After returning to school with serious injuries, Lilly was sent back home to her parents. At age fourteen, upon returning to the estate, she was gang-raped by older men and boys. She did not report it to the police.
As an adult, Lilly learned that police and council records of her abuse had been hidden for decades. Operation Marmion briefly acknowledged her account before being shut down at a senior level. She was told the perpetrators were out of jurisdiction, dead, or untraceable. No one was held accountable.
Lilly :
“They would toot the horn of the car and then a child would be taken to the front door [by a staff member of the children's home].”
Grace -
‘Grace’ was raised without a father and with a mother who met her basic physical needs but was emotionally cold, neither nurturing nor affectionate. She believes this early life experience contributed to a lack of emotional security and increased vulnerability later in life. At four years old, she was sexually abused by a babysitter. She has no memory of the abuse and states that it does not directly trouble her emotionally.
Grace’s mother prevented contact with her estranged father without giving any reason, causing Grace to rebel against her. By secondary school age, her behaviour had deteriorated significantly. She began getting into cars with adult men who offered her cannabis, music, food and lifts. She states that the majority of the men who groomed her were Pakistani, although some white men acted as intermediaries and assisted in the grooming of girls.
She was raped on multiple occasions by adult men, often while intoxicated. Because she had been drinking, she believed she was responsible for the abuse. At fifteen, she believed she was in a relationship with an adult man, a situation that lasted around five years. During that time she experienced domestic violence, rape, and coercive control.
She was raped on multiple occasions by adult men, often while intoxicated. Because she had been drinking, she believed she was responsible for the abuse. At fifteen, she believed she was in a relationship with an adult man, a situation that lasted around five years. During that time she experienced domestic violence, rape, and coercive control.
Another partner was a paedophile involved in grooming gangs who sexually abused her children and others. He stalked, harassed and threatened the family, and manipulated police investigations for years. Police repeatedly failed to seize devices, link cases, act on stalking logs, or protect her and her children. Non-molestation orders and bail conditions were breached without consequence. The cumulative impact includes severe mental illness, displacement, loss of employment, and ongoing fear.
Grace :
“If I got raped tomorrow, I would never come back to the police again because what is the point? It's just a pointless process that leaves you feeling even worse because you're either not believed or you're not taken seriously or they don't use the tools that they've got to investigate properly because it's too hard.”
Victoria -
Victoria gave evidence as the mother of a vulnerable teenager who started at a local college in 2022.
In 2023, her daughter abruptly converted to Islam. Victoria discovered Muslim clothing, a Quran, and a prayer mat hidden under her bed. Her daughter began quoting the Quran and praying five times a day. This sudden change coincided with a secret relationship with an Algerian Muslim student who held strong Islamic beliefs. She became disrespectful to her family and started speaking negatively about Britain. Victoria says her daughter changed completely.
The boyfriend exerted coercive control: he held her daughter’s banking details via Face ID, controlled her social media, isolated her from her family, and imposed strict Islamic practices. Concerned by this, Victoria contacted the police and reported the controlling behaviour and sudden conversion. The police said they would refer her daughter to social services, as she was still a child.
When social services visited, they learned her daughter was being made to take contraception. They also discussed the nature of her new Islamic beliefs. The social worker said she would refer her to Women’s Aid for support with the coercive and controlling relationship. Victoria asked the social worker to look into the partner’s background, but the college did not respond to the social worker’s inquiries. Victoria then contacted the college’s safeguarding lead herself. The lead agreed it sounded like exploitation and referred the case to Prevent – the British government’s counter-terrorism programme designed to safeguard vulnerable people from radicalisation and terrorism.
Her daughter’s diet changed dramatically: she stopped eating bacon and ate far less than before. She spent a lot of time in and out of hospital but never explained why to her mother. Her mental health also deteriorated severely. After meeting the man, she repeatedly attempted suicide by cutting and made desperate calls saying she would kill herself. During one emergency hospital stay, police removed her daughter from Victoria, threatened Victoria with arrest, and transported the girl to the address of her abuser’s brother – despite Victoria’s explicit warnings about the danger.
There, her daughter was subjected to mental and physical abuse, including strangulation, death threats, rape, and financial exploitation. Money was funnelled through the abuser’s brother’s bank account. The man and his family racially abused her, calling her a “white slag,” and pressured her to drop all complaints and marry him.
Prevent’s involvement was catastrophically delayed. The college’s safeguarding lead initially told Victoria that referrals had been made and accepted, but later evidence showed they were sent late, incorrectly, or not at all. Arrests were delayed for months, and rape allegations were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence after only limited phone checks. Victoria concluded that systemic failure and institutional reluctance to address Islamist-related safeguarding had placed her daughter in grave danger.
Victoria :
“The local mosque where [the boyfriend] used to go is known for extreme radical views, and I fell that the children and young adults that are attending that mosque are being taught what to go out and do in the community and to our children at schools to preach.”
Eleanor -
‘Eleanor’ was born into a financially comfortable family, but despite this she had a childhood marked by instability, emotional neglect, and a lack of adult protection. Her parents separated, and after moving away with her mother and two sisters, she lived in poorer conditions and saw much less of her father. Without her extended family around her and with a mother who was emotionally distant, she was left to grow up largely on her own.
Her desire for adult attention resulted in poor behaviour at school. She was expelled in Year seven and placed in a pupil referral unit, which she was eventually excluded from as well. She attributes her disruptive behaviour to a lack of desire and emotional capacity to engage with her education, as well as the lack of structure in her life. She was preoccupied with seeking attention, validation, and care.
By the age of 13 she began to be groomed by older men whom she encountered locally, usually in the town centre. Some were older white men, but there were also Muslim men connected to a newly opened restaurant in the area. As the grooming continued, Eleanor’s behaviour deteriorated significantly. She had frequent encounters with the police and was arrested often. During this time, older men gave her drugs and kept her in various houses. She believed these men were looking after her and offering her the care she craved.
Whilst this was ongoing, her mother was unaware of her location but did not report her missing. No authority intervened regarding why she was often missing, arrested, and spending significant amounts of time with adult men.
When she was fourteen, she returned home one day after being away and no one answered the door. Eleanor climbed onto the roof of the house and managed to get inside. She discovered the house was completely empty. Her mother had thrown everything away – including childhood photographs and personal items – and had left without telling her. She went to social services of her own volition and was instructed to go to her father. She was expected to travel to him on the train alone.
She had no meaningful relationship with her father and only spoke to him occasionally. When Eleanor arrived, he made it clear that his new partner was his priority and that she and her sisters came second. His partner tried to get her onto a more stable path and back into education, but due to her previous exclusions, schools repeatedly refused her. In an ‘ethnic minority’ majority area, she was explicitly told by one school that she could not be admitted because she was an English girl and would be the only one. She was placed in a Pupil Referral Unit, but the behaviour of other students there did little to give her the sense of safety, structure, and aspiration she needed. She therefore ran away often.
Frequent running away resulted in repeated arrests, and eventually social services decided she could be contained in a family setting and took her into care. While in care, she became more visible and accessible to men who were already looking for vulnerable girls, and she was once again groomed. On one occasion, some adult men approached her and offered her alcohol and a lift. She drank a small amount and quickly became unwell and lost consciousness.
When she awoke, she was aware she was inside a house that appeared to be decorated for an Asian wedding, but she lost consciousness again. When she finally awoke properly, she found herself abandoned by the side of the road, unclothed, injured, and disoriented. She managed to make it back to her children’s home. However, she was not asked what had happened, taken to hospital, or had any record made of the incident in her case files.
Following this incident, Eleanor went missing far more frequently. She would sleep rough in doorways, abandoned buildings, and taxis. No one at the care home asked her any questions about why this was happening. She was transferred to a different children’s home where men regularly collected girls from outside the home and sometimes came inside the building itself. The staff allowed this to happen. The men offered food, alcohol, places to stay, and a sense of belonging, but in reality they were there to sexually exploit children.
Eleanor became involved with an older man whom she believed was her boyfriend. He was involved in the drug trade. She was taken to Jersey and kept in a hotel for several days. She was not allowed to leave freely. Upon returning to the care home, no one questioned where she had been. She continued to be arrested for low-level offences, particularly shoplifting. She was eventually placed in a young offenders’ institution. On one occasion she was punched while being arrested, and this experience – among others – destroyed any trust she had in the police. From this point onwards, she saw the police as just another threat.
When she was 17, Eleanor was present at a stabbing incident involving men connected to the grooming network that had been abusing her. She was not involved in the violence but gave the victim first aid and called emergency services. She was arrested at the scene and charged under the doctrine of joint enterprise with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent.
The case did not come to trial until two years later, when Eleanor was an adult, and so she was tried as an adult. She was sentenced to two years in prison. She believes she was criminalised for circumstances that arose directly from exploitation, neglect, and systemic failure, rather than being protected from them.
Following her conviction, Eleanor converted to Islam. She did not do so for theological reasons but practical ones, as a method of survival. In many environments she had experienced, Muslim girls were afforded some degree of protection relative to non-Muslims. She felt that conversion was a way to reduce risk and make herself less vulnerable.
Before serving her sentence she became pregnant by an older man and entered into an Islamic marriage with him, believing it might provide stability and protection. She was imprisoned with her young baby, an experience she found deeply distressing.
Following her release, she was subjected to domestic abuse and coercive control. This abuse was not always physical. It involved isolation, monitoring, restrictions on her behaviour, and the constant erosion of her sense of self. She was controlled through fear, guilt, and religious obligation. She was not allowed independence or employment, and others were told she was mentally unwell. This further isolated her.
She met and remarried another man who took her to Saudi Arabia. She was entirely dependent on her husband for everything and was not allowed to leave the house without him. She felt isolated and powerless. This experience made her realise she needed to leave Islam, but she knew that apostasy carried very serious consequences and so kept it to herself. However, she was eventually able to escape Saudi Arabia and return to the United Kingdom with her children.
Back in Britain with no home, work, or money, she was raped by another man, became pregnant again, and felt forced into another marriage. Her abuse continued. She eventually escaped the situation after studying in secret and building up her sense of identity and confidence enough to make a new life for herself.
Eleanor believes much of the harm she experienced could have been avoided had institutions adequately protected her. Children’s services did not safeguard her. The education system excluded her. The police criminalised her.
Eleanor :
“I'd had friends that were Muslim, girl friends, and this never happened to them.
They would be in the cars with us sometimes, but the men would treat them differently.”