Raped at gunpoint: Telford child abuse victims speak out

Child abuse victims in Telford, including one raped at gunpoint, say they are still struggling to get justice.

Sky News has spoken exclusively to victims and parents caught up in the scandal to reveal the sordid secrets of the Shropshire town where child abuse was rife for years.

One woman told Sky News how, as a teenager, she was raped with a gun to her head.

Girls as young as 11 had their phone numbers sold and were coerced into sleeping with dozens of men after being plied with alcohol or threatened with violence.

Several say their abusers are still walking free in their hometown and may never be prosecuted.

The victims say they are struggling to get justice because they were often seen as consenting to sex.

The mother of a grooming victim killed in Telford has called for a review in police procedure towards missing children to prevent further cases.

In her first television interview, the mother of Becky Watson suggests that any child who goes missing should be treated as a potential rape victim.

The woman, who does not want to be named, said: “Any child that goes missing, I think the police should test their blood for alcohol or drugs and actually treat them like they are a rape victim and take swabs.”

She told Sky News: “When your child first goes missing, your first reaction as a parent is that you should shout and scream at them.

“When I think back now, she could’ve been raped that night and she has come home and I started shouting and screaming at her.

“It’s very hard for me now to swallow that guilt.”

Sky News also spoke to a victim who claims to have been abused by more than 100 men in Telford.

She says none of them have been prosecuted.

Speaking about one encounter with a restaurant owner, Louise (not her real name), said: “He would take me around the corner of the restaurant and he would have sex with me.

“Then he would pin me down so all the rest of the restaurant workers could do it to me.”

Louise did not report anything to the police until she was much older. She added: “I didn’t think about going to the police back then because I was too scared because of what they used to say to me.

“They said they would blow my house up and would kill my mum and dad. They said they would rape my mum if I told anyone.

“And after what happened to Lucy Lowe, they said I would be next.”

Louise’s friend Lucy Lowe was 16 when she was killed in a house fire alongside her mother Eileen and sister Sarah, 17, in 2000.

Azhar Ali Mehmood, a taxi driver from Telford, was jailed for life after he was found guilty of their murder.

Mehmood and Lucy had a daughter when she was 14. Lucy was pregnant with their second child when Mehmood burned down the family home.

Louise and Lucy were also close friends with grooming victim Becky Watson. She died in 2002 from head injuries when she fell from the bonnet of a car at the age of 13.

The car was being driven by Ahmed Nawaz, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving. He was jailed for three years.

Becky Watson’s mother said she only discovered her daughter had been groomed after her death. She discovered clues about her daughter’s secret life in her wallet, which included an appointment card for a family planning clinic.

Telford MP Lucy Allan has been campaigning for the authorities to do more.

She told Sky News the Crown Prosecution Service has recently rejected the case of a 13-year-old girl, on the basis that she consented to sex and the perpetrators had believed she was 16.

The MP said: “We know there is still child sexual exploitation going on in Telford today, and we don’t want to send the wrong message that we don’t care.

“It is really important that we are seen to be taking this seriously and get to the bottom of what has happened here.

“We don’t want any people in post – whether that be in the police or the council – that aren’t taking this seriously.”

She added: “There is a sense, and it is wrong, that the girls involved are partly to blame for what happened to them – that they engaged in risky behaviour or were mixing with the wrong people.

“I think this is wholly wrong. We are talking about girls who are 12 and 13 who have been systematically groomed by gangs of men who were much older than them.”

West Mercia Police Assistant Chief Constable Martin Evans said: “Child sexual exploitation has been a priority for us, and the focus of our resources, for many years.

“A great deal of work has been carried out to target the perpetrators and disrupt their criminal behaviour. Every concern raised, whether to police or other partner agency, is followed up regardless of whether there is any evidence child sexual exploitation has actually taken place.

“Any child who is reported missing is spoken to when they return to establish the circumstances around them disappearing and find out what they have been doing and who they have been with, often it is not appropriate for this to be with police and we will work with our partner agencies to make sure those who are the most vulnerable in our communities have the support they need.”

(c) Sky News 2018: Raped at gunpoint: Telford child abuse victims speak out