LONDON – Up to 1,000 children could have been abused in Britain’s biggestever child abuse scandal, an investigation has revealed.
Hundreds of children, some as young as 11, are estimated to have beendrugged, beaten and raped over a 40-year period in the town of Telford.
Lucy Allan, the Conservative MP for Telford, has called for an inquiry intochild sexual exploitation, saying the latest reports were “extremelyserious and shocking”. She has previously called for a “Rotherham-styleinquiry” into the allegations.
“There must now be an independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation inTelford so that our community can have absolute confidence in theauthorities,” she told the Sunday Mirror.
The investigation claims that allegations dating back to the 1980s weremishandled by authorities in Telford, who repeatedly failed to punish anetwork of abusers.
Victims claimed that similar abuse, which has been linked to three murdersand two other deaths, has continued in the area.
The newspaper’s probe alleges that social workers were aware of the abusein the 1990s, but that it took police a decade to launch Operation Chalice,an inquiry into child prostitution in the Telford area in which seven menwere jailed.
It is also claimed that abused and trafficked children were considered”prostitutes” by council staff, that authorities did not keep details ofabusers from Asian communities for fear of being accused of “racism” andthat police failed to investigate one recent case five times until an MPintervened.
A spokesperson for Telford and Wrekin Council told the Sunday Mirror:”Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a vile, evil crime. It’s an issue rightacross the UK and has been for a long time.
“Telford will be covered by the national CSE review. We welcome this. Allagencies continue to work very closely together and this remains our toppriority.”
Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child abuse solicitor, told the paper: “Thesechildren were treated as sexual commodities by men who inflicted despicableacts of abuse. The survivors deserve an inquiry.
“They need to know how abuse took place for so long and why so manyperpetrators have never been brought to justice.”
The estimate of 1,000 potential victims was made with the help of ProfessorLiz Kelly, from the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at LondonMetropolitan University, who reviewed the Mirror’s figures.
Twelve victims spoke to the newspaper and accused more than 70 abusers.One, a 14-year-old, said that she became pregnant twice and had twoabortions while being groomed and abused.
“Hours after my second termination, I was taken by one of my abusers to beraped by more men”, she said.
“Night after night, I was forced to have sex with multiple men indisgusting takeaways and filthy houses. I must have been getting themorning after pill from a local clinic at least twice a week but no oneasked any questions.
“I was told that if I said a word to anyone they’d come for my littlesisters and tell my mum I was a prostitute.”
Another victim, aged 14 at the time, alleges that she had the baby of her18-year-old abuser. Now 47, she said that she told the council and schoolof her abuse at the time but does not believe action was taken.
A report commissioned by the council in 2013 acknowledged that”professionals had concerns about the nature of some of the child sexualabuse cases presented to them” from the late 1990s.
Two other investigations were launched alongside Operation Chalice aftertwo victims named dozens more abusers, yet victims have claimed that theywere put off helping inquiries.
One said that she left the investigation because she was not “emotionallysupported” by the police. The other claimed officers deterred her frompursuing her request for evidence after they learnt she had contacted thepaper.
Martin Evans, Assistant Chief Constable for West Mercia Police told theSunday Mirror: “Tackling such horrific offences is the number one priorityfor police in Telford.
“We have not only increased officer numbers to tackle this type ofoffending, but use all of our available resources and technology availableto prosecute anyone who sexually offends against children whether thatoffending took place today, yesterday or decades ago.” – Agencies