'The abuse was almost daily' - Grooming survivors share their stories

BBC News

2 days ago

Five women from across England who were groomed and abused as children or young adults have told BBC Newsnight about the ongoing impact it has had on their lives.All were targeted by adult men, mainly from a British Asian background, often against the backdrop of chaotic upbringings. They shared their stories on the same day the government confirmed the publication of a review into grooming gangs has been delayed.
Kate Elysia
Kate Elysia - not her real name - was abused by a gang of men of Pakistani origin in the Shropshire town of Telford.She was first raped when she was 18, shortly after moving out of her family home into a bedsit, and has previously estimated she was attacked by more than 70 men.Kate said her attackers treated her like "she was nothing" and that they "wanted to turn me into what they wanted me to be, so they could justify abusing me".She said her abusers would harass her on her doorstep and send men to her home asking for sex."The abuse was almost daily," she said, sometimes "multiple men a day".Kate, now 36, gave evidence to an independent inquiry into gang grooming in Telford, which found that 1,000 girls had been targeted and "nervousness about race" led to abuse being ignored for generations.Two of the men who abused Kate - Mohammed Ali Sultan and Shahmeel Khan - were convicted of rape and sexual assault.Sultan, who was considered a ringleader of the gang, was released in February by the independent parole board - a decision the government said it was "disappointed" by.Khan was approved for open prison conditions in April.Kate is calling for the government to block her abuser from going into a low-security prison and be given the right to have day release."I'm very concerned for the public, and I'm very concerned for myself," she said.Kate described him as a "scary, violent individual" and that she fears for herself and the public if he is allowed back into the community."I don't think that he would be safe to leave prison at all."
Zara
Zara - not her real name - the first victim of prolific abuser David Saynor to share their story publicly, told BBC Newsnight it left her fighting a "battle that I'll always be in".Saynor used his limousine business to lure child victims in Rotherham - his trial heard how we would pick up young girls at schools and children's homes and offer them "promotional work"."[It] started off as that - just promoting, getting picked up in groups and driving around, drinking, dancing," she told Newsnight.Zara was just 12 when she was first groomed by Saynor, a white British man who would give his victims alcohol, drugs and money before attacking them."The more you did, the more money he'd offer you... it became normal to do that," she said.Zara said she and a friend were "getting picked up from school, getting picked outside our local youth club" but no adults raised concerns."It's impacted my whole life," Zara said. "From being the age of 12, I've not lived a normal life. "I witnessed Dave assault my friend, which is the first memory that I've got of that feeling of fear, like that unexplainable fear that comes over you. And I carry guilt with me for that."Last year, Saynor, 77, was jailed for 24 years after being found guilty of 15 offences against eight young girls - including two counts of rape and five counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming.Separately, Zara also alleged she was abused by another man from a British Pakistani background, who is due to go on trial. Zara said of that alleged abuse: "To me, in my head, he was my boyfriend... he didn't abuse me straight away, so I was convinced it was a normal relationship."Zara, who is from a mixed English and Asian background, said: "It was easy for me to accept the flattery and compliments and to feel wanted... I was kind of wanting to indulge in that side of my heritage because my dad wasn't present for a while."She said police officers stopped her and the alleged abuser on more than one occasion over suspicions about an older man being with a young girl, but that nothing was done which might have led to the abuse being uncovered.
Fiona
Fiona Goddard was abused by a predominantly British Asian grooming gang in Bradford from the age of 14, shortly after being taken into care.It began after one of her abusers, Basharat Khaliq, took Fiona and her friend, also 14, to a petrol station to buy them vodka."The abuse started as being more coercive, but then the more you resisted it... by the end it was violent rapes," she said."The more you resisted and tried to point out what was going on the worse it got."Fiona recounted how she had told adults about the sexual assaults she had experienced.She recalled being asked if she was being groomed, but at the time she didn't understand the meaning of the word. But when asked if the men had been violent, she said yes."We basically told them that we were being groomed without using the words, but they just never did nothing," she explains.Fiona's groomers plied her with drugs and gifts. A court heard that she was "in effect used as a prostitute" by another of her abusers.She has previously recounted how she was driven to suicidal thoughts and self-harm as a teenager.In February 2019, nine men were convicted of 22 offences against Fiona and jailed. Khaliq received 20 years for five counts of rape.When contacted by BBC Newsnight, a spokesperson for Bradford Council said there were "significant failings" in how Fiona was cared for and reiterated its apology to her.
Chantelle
Chantelle was groomed and raped by a gang of British Asian men in Manchester between 2003 and 2007, beginning when she was 11 years old.She was in the care system at the time as her mother was in and out of prison."There was males approaching the children's home, giving us alcohol and drugs and putting us in cars," she said.Chantelle's ordeal began after she met a man in his early twenties who, at the time, she considered to be her boyfriend.She has previously recalled how he introduced her to other men and she was given alcohol and drugs, before being forced to perform sex acts on them."They sexually abused us, drugged us... made us do things we didn't want to do," she said."It was the emotional and mental impact as well that used to make you feel like you only wanted them... so you keep going back."Chantelle also recounted the time she was reported as a missing child from the children's home and later found naked in a man's house by a female officer.She was then taken back to the children's home where she reported the abuse to the officer.However, Chantelle later discovered that no police report was filed at the time.Twenty years on, she is now being asked by police to identify the officer who found her."The female officer who found me never put it on the system. The report is there that she found me, but none of the abuse that I told her had been logged," she said.Her case is being investigated by Greater Manchester Police. No one has been charged with an offence.Chantelle, who is now 33, is also suing Manchester City Council for the abuse she endured while under its care.A spokesperson for the local authority said they were "deeply sorry" for what happened to her, and that she had been "let down by the system"."Not enough was done to protect her and other vulnerable young people in similar circumstances in the late 1990s and 2000," the spokesperson said.
Jade
Jade said she was abused by hundreds of men, primarily from a British Asian background, in the Buckinghamshire area from the age of 14 onwards.It began after she left her mother's home to live with her father, a drug addict who introduced her to dealers.During a chaotic upbringing, Jade believed those dealers could protect her - but from that point on, she says she was repeatedly attacked by adult men at parties while intoxicated.In 2008, she was placed into care and a year later was made subject to a special safeguarding order for children who repeatedly going missing.But Jade was arrested and convicted of causing or inciting another girl to engage in sexual activity after being found by police at a party with another child.She said she was "accused of taking girls out to get sexually assaulted" but "didn't have a clue what was happening"."It's police failure, social services failure," she said.Jade remains a convicted sex offender but believes that none of the men she says abused her have been convicted of a crime.Due to her conviction, she said she's had to fight social services to keep her children."I've never been allowed on school trips with my children," she explained."I'm not allowed to apply for jobs for the work I want to go into with vulnerable kids."Still trying to clear her name, Jade said the experience has "been the worst experience of my life"."It's just as bad as the abuse."It feels like I'm still being abused by them. It feels like they're still controlling my life."The Maggie Oliver Foundation - a survivors charity set up by a former police officer who raised concerns about how abusers in Rochdale were investigated - said it is supporting Jade to have her conviction overturned.
What the data on grooming gangs shows
The BBC has obtained new police data on the ethnicity of suspects arrested on suspicion of gang grooming offences in England and Wales in 2024.The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPPC) figures indicated that British Pakistanis were substantially over-represented among suspects.In 2024, of grooming gang suspects where an ethnicity was recorded, just over half were white British, and around one in eight were British Pakistani - even though one in 40 people in England and Wales were of Pakistani heritage according to the 2021 census.The NPCC told Newsnight that the figures should be regarded with caution because just under a third of suspects had their ethnicity recorded.The widespread failure to collect high quality data on abusers, victims and offences was criticised by the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.Deputy Chief Constable Becky Riggs, the NPCC's lead for child protection and abuse investigation, told BBC Newsnight that gang grooming offences had impacted every part of the country and cases were ongoing.She said: "I genuinely think out of 44 [police] forces, very few would say there isn't a crime of that type being investigated in their [area]."
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