*WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS THAT MAY UPSET SOME PEOPLE*
SIX ENGLISH GIRLS were raped and abused for five years because authorities did not believe their stories and failed to prosecute.
In 2013, seven men were jailed for trafficking and abusing six girls in Oxford over an eight year period between 2002 and 2010. The abuse could, a report published today has found, have been spotted as early as 2005.
The case review, released today, found “many errors” were made by both police and the county council and that they could have acted sooner.
Like the case in Rotherham, the victims were all white girls and the perpetrators all Asian men. However, there is no suggestion ethnicity was a reason for the crimes not being reported.
The six girls are described as being vulnerable and many had no male influences in their lives.
In the review, the victims describe their experiences. Many say that the gang made them trust them and would buy them gifts, as well as drugs and alcohol.
It started with men taking an interest in me.
The next thing it isn’t nice any more… they gave us weed and drink to make us feel better.
They started nice on the first day, on the second they wanted sex – still being nice. We drank vodka.
When the grooming started they were so kind and nice. They were a lot older. It was flattering. It was attractive – then things started to change. I was already into drugs.
I wouldn’t ever have said no – they’d have beaten the shit out of me.
Some of the abuse began when girls were just 12, with some describing being raped, drugged, threatened, urinated on and pimped out.
Authorities
The girls said that their contacts with professionals were largely negative, with police and social services habitually not believing them.
One girl says that she told police, but was dismissed:
I turned up at the police station at 2/3am, blood all over me, soaked through my trousers to the crotch. They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance. I was bruised and bloody.
I made a complaint about a man who trafficked me from a children’s home. He was arrested, released and trafficked me again.
A WPC found me drunk with men. I said I was ok and she went away and left me with them. I was abused that night.
Some of the girls’ parents say that they dreaded hearing the phone and were unable to make authorities believe them.
The social worker was very abrupt, said it was my duty to look after her. I said I was not capable of dealing with it.
There were lots of meetings. I got very angry and said it was a load of bull shit – no one was doing anything.
Giving her a cuddle and taking her to MacDonald’s [sic] was the [worker’s] solution.
Abuse
A police officer described the victims as the “most difficult” they had ever dealt with.
In the report, he outlines how one girl was punished by being taken to a wood and humiliated and raped in different ways by seven men.
Left alone, hurt, crying, naked and covered with semen, the person she called for help was not the parents, social worker, police or ambulance but one of the abusers who had just raped her.
Overall, the case review has found as many as 373 children may have been victims of grooming by sex gangs in Oxfordshire over the last 16 years.
Response
The report found that there was no deliberate ignoring of abuse or wilful neglect, but that authorities did not understand child grooming or follow guidelines.
The Independent Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board, Maggie Blyth said:
“What happened to the victims is deeply disturbing.
It is shocking that these children were subjected to such appalling sexual exploitation for so long.
“On behalf of the OSCB, I would like to apologise for how long it took organisations in Oxfordshire to see what was happening to these children and bring the perpetrators to justice”
Since the 2013 trial, Thames Valley Police says that 700 children in the region have been referred to them on suspicion that they have been sexually exploited.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say