Telford victim: 'Abusers stole my childhood'

But this young girl had her childhood snatched from her.

"My evenings were not spent revising for the beginning of the rest of my life, they were spent hiding in cars with blacked out windows, being 'delivered' to all sorts of places across the West Midlands," she said today in an exclusive interview with the Shropshire Star.

"I was delivered for men to pay the driver for the privilege of having sex with an underage girl. From takeaways to tower blocks, from one man to many men, I've been there."

From the age of 14 to 18, between 2001 and 2005, the victim, now 27, was raped and sexually abused by hundreds of men in Telford and beyond.

She has emerged to speak about her horrific experiences – and wants to help others who have suffered in a similar way

"The only thing that can happen that is worse than what has happened to me is that I get murdered," she said.

"And even that doesn't scare me."

Seven men from Telford were jailed in 2013 after judges heard distressing evidence from four young women, who were aged 13 to 16 when they were abused during a two-year period between 2007 and 2009.

An independent probe into child sexual exploitation in the borough has revealed youth workers told police and council workers a year before this abuse started that there was a problem.

Only one of the men jailed was an abuser of the woman who is speaking out today.

The rest are still roaming the streets – and she came face-to-face with one in a chance street encounter earlier this year.

"I had just put my three-year-old into my sister's car, as I was on my way to therapy," she said.

"He came over to me, smiling, and said hello.

"I couldn't believe my ears or my eyes, I started shouting at him, my body and mind filled with fear.

"I remember shouting loud: 'How dare you speak to me. You're a rapist. You rape little girls. If one word comes out of your mouth to talk to me again, I will tell the police what you did to me'

"I felt sick to the stomach with fear.

"The whole time he just smiled and shook his head at me. There was a group of teenage girls walking by as I was shouting at him, they stopped to look at him, that felt so good, I felt I was belittling him the same way he used to belittle and humiliate me, only he had something to be ashamed of.

"I am now a woman and I don't want to allow him to hurt anyone else like he hurt me. I will stand tall and tell everyone he is a convicted rapist, every time I am out in the street and I see him.

"He is a filthy, vile creature. I hate him."

The woman said she had to cope alone with the abuse, unable to confide in her family and hitting a brick wall on the couple of occasions she tried to get the police involved.

"I think that the police didn't want to acknowledge there was a problem, because community relations would be broken down," she said.

"I had been present in a car after abuse had taken place when we were subject to a random stop and search. No follow up was done as to why I was with a middle aged man in a car driving away from the Wrekin late at night.

"From 2001 until 2005, while my abuse was taking place, I never had any contact with any outside professional, I coped alone.

"I did call after one incident where I had a bottle of urine poured over my head. But the woman on the police switchboard told me to stop wasting police time.

"If you don't comply with demands, there is always a consequence. That just happened to be mine, and the only reason I called the police was because it was in front if a lot of other people. I was so humiliated."

The victim said she was not the only girl being regularly abused at that time.

"I knew of about 15 to 20 other girls involved to some degree," she said.

Much has been said, both in Operation Chalice and the recent scandal in Rotherham, of the link between female exploitation and Asian men.

But the woman said: "One thing I do want to stress is that the men that were paying to have me as a child were not all Muslim.

"If you ask any real practising Muslim if the acts these men carried out were ok, they would say no. They would tell you straight away that the rapist is not a true Muslim. I agree.

"Many of the men that actually wanted to buy the body of a child were not Pakistani, or even Muslims.

"They were business owners, dads and desperate men. Most of them were Chinese with a few white men tied in there. All of them were aware of my age yet none of them cared that I was still a child."

At one stage, when she was 16 and on the verge of taking her GCSEs, one night of abuse tipped her over the edge and forced her to try and take her own life.

She said she had been taken back to a house in Hadley, Telford, after being plied with drink at a local pub.

While there she was raped by five different men.

"This experience left me feeling vulnerable and trapped," she said.

"My mum had been calling my phone, I had 37 missed calls, but my battery had completely died while I was being raped.

"When I got home at about 4.15am, my mum was going mental at me. I washed myself and went to bed.

"That night, I didn't sleep.

"I cried silently, my little sister asleep in the bed above mine. I didn't want to wake her. The next morning, my mum called me a prostitute and said I was grounded. I have never been so relieved to be grounded in my life.

"I felt scared and like I just wanted to die.

"All I felt was utter sadness, I had no control over anything to do with my body, my life or even my thoughts anymore. I was trapped. I decided I wanted to die. I couldn't take anymore.

"I went home and made a plan.

"I decided, all I wanted was to make my mum proud of me.

"So I told myself I would finish my exams, then I would do it.

"I wrote letters to everyone I cared about, just merely saying that something had happened and my heart couldn't take it.

"So, my last exam was IT and it was on a Friday afternoon.

"I finished it, I went home and got changed.

"I went into the kitchen and found everything I could, I found four boxes of ibuprofen, three boxes of paracetamol and some stomach salts. I took it all.

"I went to bed, I woke up being sick, I threw up so much I gave myself a headache.

"My mum woke me up that morning, she thought I had the flu, she kept telling me my skin was grey, after a short time, my vision started to go, everything became a blurred mess.

"My mum figured out what I had done.

"The paramedics came and took me into hospital. After spending six nights in hospital, I was allowed home, if my mum supervised me 24 hours a day."

The abuse continued - but the victim, by her own admission, at that stage did not have the strength to stand up to her abusers as she does now.

Threats did not help.

She said: "I had much younger siblings, I was told they would be raped if I dared to think about not complying with their requests.

"When I was asked by the police if at 14 years old I gave my consent to have sex with a man I knew was 49 at the time, I merely replied I complied. I never gave my consent to anything."

She spoke of one occasion where she was taken to a flat above a chicken shop in Telford to be greeted by "seven sleazy grinning faces".

She went on: "Straight away two of them left and said they didn't want to pay, so that just left the five.

"They started bartering with the man who had taken me for a deal for all five of them 'to have a go'.

"I could feel my eyes welling up with tears, I hadn't prepared for this - not mentally, not like I had before.

"It became like a revolving door, one would come in, do what he wanted, followed by another and another, until all five men had got 'their monies worth'.

"Downstairs, I saw a wad of cash exchange hands between the buyer and seller, I never saw a penny of it.

"I just got to listen to my courier complaining of how long it had taken, how bored he had been sitting there waiting."

The victim eventually fled Telford to escape her abusers.

When she returned to the town to visit family, she was too afraid to even leave the house and go to the shop for a carton of milk.

But, nine years on, she is now back home for good, and with her head held high determined to try and help others who have suffered in the same way.

The scars, of course will always remain.

"I have massive difficulty having relationships," she said.

"I never believe that the relationship is real, I always think that anyone trying to love me is actually trying to manipulate or use me.

"It has taken my confidence and took over my life for a long time.

"I fear for my daughter when she grows up that the same thing will happen to her.

"It has caused me to give up my career because I won't leave my daughter with other people because I'm convinced everyone is a potential paedophile. I won't take the risk to put her in childcare.

"At the time of the abuse, I tried to take my life, and I genuinely wanted to die. I thought that was my only escape, which is why now, I want to help girls that are involved or have been involved.

"I felt ashamed and like I was all the things they would call me to put me down.

"I felt worthless, and it's taken me 10 years to start rebuilding my life.

"Now I want to fight to show they don't have control over me, my mind or body anymore."

Assurance by police chief to abuse victims:

West Mercia Police today assured potential victims that all allegations are taken seriously.

The Shropshire Star has decided not to name the woman making fresh allegations today, although she was willing to waive her anonymity.

In this case the woman has so far decided not to press formal charges as she does not want to relive her trauma in court, or put her daughter through any pain. However Telford police say they are in contact with her.

Superintendent Nav Malik, policing commander for Telford & Wrekin, said: "We cannot confirm whether the incidents from 2001 took place because they would not have been recorded and took place many years ago.

"However, it would have been unacceptable for staff and officers to respond in the way described, when dealing with a young person hoping for support from their police force.

Striving

"The awareness of child sexual exploitation is better today, not least given the success of Operation Chalice that saw police and our partners in Telford bringing offenders to justice and lengthy jail sentences handed down.

"We are continually striving to improve our understanding of this complex issue, how we can prosecute more offenders and safeguard and support victims and survivors.

"In this particular case, we set up a specific investigation in response to the complaints we received and have worked with the victim over recent years. She has been interviewed on several occasions and has a dedicated specialist officer who is available to her.

"As much as we would like to see the offenders charged and prosecuted for their horrendous crimes, the victim in this case has chosen not to pursue any prosecutions to date. We take all complaints of sexual exploitation with the utmost seriousness and this case was no exception.

"In the meantime, she has decided to focus her energies on helping other victims and has been in touch with West Mercia Police to offer her help, so we will be looking at where we can work with her to support those who have suffered the same deep trauma that child sexual exploitation causes."

See also:

• Council: We acted promptly on Telford child sex abuse claims

• Rise in child sex exploitation cases reported across Shropshire

• Star comment: Our duty to protect children