Rochdale grooming victim speaks out against sex gang: ‘What they did to me was evil’

By
Jaya Narain and Nazia Parveen

10:47 EST, 8 May 2012

|

02:13 EST, 9 May 2012


Harrowing: The girl, who was 15 when the abuse began, has spoken of her ordeal at the hands of the sex abuse gang (picture posed by model)

Harrowing: The girl, who was 15 when the abuse began, has spoken of her ordeal at the hands of the sex abuse gang (picture posed by model)

Young and naïve, she was one of the
many victims of the sex grooming gang – but was the first to speak out
against their horrific abuse.

Her nightmare began when she was only
15. A troubled teenager, she decided to move out of her parents’ home
to live with an older girl.

‘She introduced me to these men and we’d get free alcohol and cigarettes and food and free taxis and things,’ she said.

‘At first I thought it were great
because nothing had happened, like nothing sexual. I just thought “I can
get all this stuff for free”.’

But one day things took a sickening turn for the worse.

The older girl took her to a kebab
shop and introduced her to staff who plied them with vodka and food in
an upstairs room. She said: ‘It made me feel like I was pretty.

‘I never thought they’d do what they did to me because you don’t think that do you?’

On one visit an older man asked her to
go upstairs with him for a chat.‘I didn’t really think anything of it,’
she said. ‘Then he was basically saying about all the things he’s
bought for me and he wants something back for it. Then I was saying
“No”, like, I was kind of saying it like in a giggly way.

‘I felt like if I’d said it nastily to
him he could have hurt me. I tried to say no in a nice way, but he just
weren’t having it.’

It was then, she says, the older man forced himself on her and raped her on a mattress.

She said: ‘I just think what they did
to me was evil. They ripped away all my dignity and all my last bit of
self-esteem and by the end of it I had no emotion whatsoever because I
was used to being used and abused daily.

‘It was just blocked out, it was just
like it wasn’t me any more. They just took everything away and hopefully
they’ll pay for what they’ve done.’

Ashamed, she felt unable to turn to
her parents and, intimidated by the older girl, she felt powerless to
stop the abuse when it happened again and again, often every day.

She said: ‘At first I felt really bad
and dirty and ashamed, but after a while it had been going on for so
long and so many different men and that it just became, like … I didn’t
feel anything towards it any more.

‘It weren’t me any more. It just
became like something I had to do and I just couldn’t get out of it.
Like once you’re in it you’re trapped. It just became like a daily
life.’

Grooming: Takeaway shop Balti House in Heywood, Greater Manchester, where girls were targeted by the gang. The shop is under new management now

Grooming: Takeaway shop Balti House in Heywood, Greater Manchester, where girls were targeted by the gang. The shop is under new management now

One night she got drunk and went round
to the kebab shop to confront the two men. ‘I’d got really drunk and …
I’d gone in and I’m really drunk and I’m angry and I smashed the counter
in the takeaway and they rang the police and got me arrested.’

She told the police about the sex attacks and was able to provide forensic evidence from her underwear.

Although she didn’t see the original two men again, back on the street the abuse continued and began to escalate.

‘It just started again with different men and more men this time and that’s when it started becoming like up to five men a day.

‘They would arrange with the girl and
they’d arrange a time and they’d come and pick me and her up and we’d go
to the place, a flat or a house, and there would be different men there
waiting.

‘There were quite a few men who would
be there quite a lot and there’s other men who would pick us up and take
us to different places for the other men waiting. But there was also a
lot of men that I’d only see once or twice.

‘Towards the end, it could be up to five men in a day, sometimes every day, at least four or five times a week.’

The abuse only came to a halt when she
became pregnant and social services stepped in. She said: ‘Social
services got involved through school because Asian men were picking me
up and dropping me off and I was coming into school dirty and smelly and
smelling of alcohol sometimes and then I got pregnant.

‘Social services said to me that if I
don’t leave that house they’ll remove my baby at birth and I were
frightened to go because I didn’t know what they would do … the men.
They would come and find me.

‘But I went to live with my mum and
dad. But after I moved back in I was getting phone calls … taxi drivers
were parking outside my mum’s house just watching the house and I
recognised them and that went on for months. I would not go out of the
house on my own for nine months without my mum or dad because I was
frightened what could happen.’

Gulity: Mohammed Amin, 45, was found guilty of conspiracy and sexual assault today

Undated handout photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of Abdul Qayyum, 44, who has been found guilty of conspiracy

Gulity: Mohammed Amin, left, 45, was found guilty of conspiracy and sexual assault today, while Abdul Qayyum, 44, right, was found guilty of conspiracy

Police launched their first
investigation in August 2008 and took DNA swabs from the girl and
arrested two men. A file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service
which recommended no action.

The child sex ring was free to carry
on and was not stopped until 2010 after a review of her case by senior
prosecutor Nazir Afzal. The girl says she was devastated by the original
CPS decision. She said: ‘I felt let down. I don’t feel that the police
have let me down because I know that they did all they could. It was the
CPS (who) would not take it.’

She said the phenomenon of Asian men
preying on young, vulnerable girls was now commonplace, adding: ‘People
should know about this because it is common, it’s going on everywhere
and people need to know so they can spot the signs.’

‘You think of Muslim men as religious
and family-minded and just nice people. You  on’t think … I don’t know …
you just don’t think they’d do things like that.’

She added: ‘In my situation it was all
the men were Asian and all the girls were white, young schoolgirls. I
think white girls are more vulnerable because of drinking and Asian
girls don’t do anything like that, do they?’

Abuse: This takeaway - now under new management - was at the centre of the abuse ring in its previous guise of Tasty Bites

Abuse: This takeaway – now under new management – was at the centre of the abuse ring in its previous guise of Tasty Bites

When the CPS reconsidered the case and
decided to prosecute she was delighted and hopes it will prevent girls
falling victim to this type of sexual crime in the future.

She says she wanted ‘people to
recognise that this does go on a lot and that it’s white girls that are
targeted by Asian men. And the jobs that they have – taxi driver,
takeaway shop – it makes it easier for them to do what they do.’

She believes the convicted men were
just a handful of the number of abusers. ‘There’s a lot more that I know
myself,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know how many that I had to sleep
with.’

She says the men that abused her had
driven her to the brink of suicide.  She hopes she can now slowly
rebuild her life and wants to study to become a social worker.

‘It will always be there but I know
how to deal with it. I’ve had a lot of problems in the past, suicide
attempts and all sorts … but I think now I know that something’s being
done to prevent it happening again.

‘It’s a relief really because I don’t want any other girls to have to go through that.’

VIDEO: Harrowing. Hear extracts of the victim’s interview here 

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Doesn’t it make you feel like slapping these men?

I am filled with more rage and hatred than I ever thought possible. I dare not say anything else; I do not have the right of free speech anymore!
– Gill, Third world Briton , 8/5/2012 17:15
I KNOW YOUR FEELINGS GILL, MY BLOOD BOILS WITH RAGE TOO, WE CAN NO LONG VOICE OUR THOUGHTS , I HOPE THE PC LIBERAL ELITE ARE HAPPY WITH THE WAY THEY HAVE DESTROYED OUR ONCE GREAT NATION, AND THROWN IT BACK TO THE STONE AGE, IT.S SO FRUSTRATING TO LISTEN TO THE LIKES OF VAZ, AND POLICE SPOKESMEN.

She says she wanted ‘people to recognise that this does go on a lot and that it’s white girls that are targeted by Asian men. And the jobs that they have – taxi driver, takeaway shop – it makes it easier for them to do what they do.’ =============Oriental men have been in the takeaway industry for decades yet there has never been an incident of this… I don’t think it’s to do with takeaways.

Lack of living attention at home drove these girls into the arms of the beasts..without the love and attention if parents results in girls and boys trying to find affection somewhere else as a consequence there are easy prey to the vulturez..

Men generally don’t do or give anything out of kindness; they all expect to be “paid” in one way or another, especially from young, naive girls.
– Ann, San Francisco**********What are you suggesting Ann?I think your comment is disgusting.

Knowing our legal system they’ll probably get a couple of years and then will be out and about to abuse more girls.

I cannot think of a word to mitigate the social evils commited by these men. However the only thing that makes their offence a rape is the statutory age of consent. On this “victim’s” own statement she consented to the acts in return for money and favours such as gifts. That, aside from the issue of her age, is not rape that is voluntary prostitution. I abhor the claims and behaviour of these men but in fact their disparaging description of these women is accurate. The real question is how these children were allowed unsupervised by parents to be entrapped as they were. Our liberals, social workers etc who argue that these “young adults” must be allowed freedom from parents fail those children because they take no responsibility for teaching the kids that with that unrestrained freedom comes great risks of harm and increased personal responsibilities for their decisions.

We are living in times where women are not respected in society by men and even the law courts. Only 6% rape cases get a prosecution. There are some cultures where virginity is valued and Englaish woman have a reputation for being easy…..this has been said openly. If the system lets gang rapists walk free, then once any woman has a negative experience of sexual violation, self loathing and even repeating the same behavior can become a way of self destructing. The standards in society have been set by those right at the very top where women are not protected and even a few years back there were statistics to show 1 in 4 drinks were spiked in nightclubs. After twice drinking water and just sipping to discover my drink was spiked and someone also put something in my drink at a neighours family barbacue – the host drank it instead. I had reason to be concerned. As someone who has run an online healing resource online – countles women were victims of the date rate drug. Do not be blind:(

These poor girls have been sacrificed on the altar of anti-racism. The police let the rape spree happen because they thought anti-racism was more important than these girl’s right not to be raped.
Anti-racism = child abuse
Anti-racists = rape enablers

Men generally don’t do or give anything out of kindness; they all expect to be “paid” in one way or another, especially from young, naive girls.

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