Telford Abuse Scandal

I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sadly not surprised though.

i would say very few people have given a skit about the cse I suffered. Those who have its now, not when it was happening. I was completely alone. Worse than alone because every single person around me was either abusing me or blaming and shaming me for it. I was trapped within walls of shame and pain and abuse. There was no way our. I was threatened with burning down of my house. Even standing outside with a petrol can as a threat.
the police yelled at me. The sergeant stood in my living room and called me a naughty girl. Trying to scare me into being good.
school put me on report and gave me detentions
my friends dumped me

it pushed me to my abusers not away.

And even now I’m expected to be fine. To be ok to visit my home town. Expected to have a relationship with the people who didn’t protect me and furthermore kept me hostage with the blame they heaped on me.

very few people give a fuck. Abuse is rife. Women perpetrate and on my experience, women allow it to continue with their ability to blame and shame. Misogyny at its finest

Sadly these girls rarely summon up much sympathy. The authorities often see them as "complicit" in their abuse and until we live in a society where men perving on children is taken seriously as an issue, this will continue.

I sadly agree but in these cases there were actual murders associated with it.

In 2000, when Lucy was 16 and pregnant again, he set her house on fire and she was burned alive, alongside her mum Eileen and 17-year-old sister Sarah.
Shockingly, Lucy wasn’t the only victim to die. Becky Round, 13, was killed in a road traffic collision described as a “prank” two years later.
And her friend Vicky Round died in a drugs incident aged 20 - after her abusers got her hooked on Class A drugs at the age of 12.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/telford-child-abuse-victims-went-27465964

It says girls in the opening line of the article? Has it been amended?

Sadly these girls rarely summon up much sympathy. The authorities often see them as "complicit" in their abuse and until we live in a society where men perving on children is taken seriously as an issue, this will continue.

It really shocks me how widespread this type of abuse seems to be and how little it is talked about in comparison.

The left leaning media and wokerati play a clever game. They ignore the issue and refuse to cover it. The only outlets that will cover it are right leaning ones. Then the left pillories their motives for doing so as being about racism and anti immigration as opposed to caring at all for the girls involved. They thus create both a massive deflection away from what these girls have been through and the failures of the authorities in charge, and draw these victims into a culture war narrative where the victims themselves are tarnished with accusations of racism.

I probably prefer "child" in this instance, just in case 'girl' leaves any doubt that the victims might be young women or whatever.

This whole situation on top of the recent hospital scandal has rocked the town, there is a strong undercurrent of anger locally.

I'm not surprised.

We used to live nearby and the MW who put me and my youngest at unnecessary risk and was caught lying that in end we had to complain about had worked at Telford just prior. If it's not stopped it continues and slowly spreads.

1000 girls I have to say I was surprised there wasn't more on mumsnet and media - it hit headlines for a day and that was it.

I think young girls and children are used interchangeably to avoid repeating the same words. It’s very clear the article is about abuse of girls not boys so I don’t agree that every mention of “children” should be replaced with “girls”. I also agree that children is necessary as many victims were not teen girls and also the stereotyping of teen girls as well.

I also think that it’s horrible how it went on for generations..since the 1970s and the victims were blamed for their abuse/rape. There wasn’t much said about how it is now and I worry it’s not being prevented even now.

Also the lack of media coverage and even the lack of interest on Mumsnet has been shocking. 1000 underage girls have been raped in one normal medium sized British town. 1000. I have been reading foreign language coverage of this, which is plentiful because it is absolutely shocking. Can you imagine the outcry even in the UK if 1000 children were found to have been raped by a religious group in America? But in Telford... let's just sweep it under the carpet.

I agree.

Also the lack of media coverage and even the lack of interest on Mumsnet has been shocking. 1000 underage girls have been raped in one normal medium sized British town. 1000. I have been reading foreign language coverage of this, which is plentiful because it is absolutely shocking. Can you imagine the outcry even in the UK if 1000 children were found to have been raped by a religious group in America? But in Telford... let's just sweep it under the carpet.

Absolutely.The person you mention has been an absolutely driving force in preventing the cover up of this child sex abuse.

I am from the area and the only person who has come to Telford to campaign on this is one Mr T Robinson (who's real name is...) who has recently released a multi part documentary with interviews with the victims and showing some of the alledged abusers who were never brought to justice.

I won't post a link as it will probably get me banned but you can search for "The Rape of Britain". The documenary is quite harrowing and the girls featured were extremely brave to come forward. Some of the victims featured had to endure bad intimidation even arson attacks whilst the docu was being made with over a dozen firebombings in the area last summer.

I don't like the guy at all but at least he had the balls to investigate rather than just accept the whitewash inquiry where, as ever, no named individuals were blamed. This whole situation on top of the recent hospital scandal has rocked the town, there is a strong undercurrent of anger locally.

I didn't see the article before today. Has it been rewritten from whatever posters were originally discussing?

I think unfortunately it's important to reiterate that they were children. Culturally, we have all sorts of ideas about teenage girls which are not helpful in the context of speaking about abuse. Reminding people that these were child victims is important to get a clear message across.

Not sure I agree on this occasion. The headline refers to “child sex abuse”. This is a blanket term which is also used when referring to crimes committed against boys. The summary in bold at the top refers to “ more than 1000 girls being abused” . There is another para in bold referrig to Sunday Mirror reporting that “gangs had been abusing girls” and a photo caption referring to “ men in cars approaching girls”. There are further reference to both “children” and “girls” but I think this is a style point to avoid too many repetitions of the same word. Nobody reading this article could be in any doubt about the sex of the victims.

1000 victims in one locality.

1000 people growing up with indescribable trauma.

I don't understand why this isn't being reported on and discussed more widely

of course, they were children and people need to know they were not able to consent. They need to mention young girls alongside children. It’s not difficult to do.

I saw a documentary on that article you posted upthread from the perspective of the daughter that survived the fire.

That original article you posted is infuriating.
Just gobsmacked the way they reported it and made it seem the relationship was normal.
Well finally the net is closing in on these bastards how could they let them get away with it, was it really because they didn’t want racial tensions or simply because they were girls and didn’t matter. Maybe both. Everyone had a duty of care towards those girls and they all failed them. It’s one thing if they couldn’t say anything but they asked for help and were ignored. Makes me sick.

I agree with you, Tootired. I understand why they are saying children but it's one sex class of children.

I personally think the word ‘young girls’ should be used instead of children to show there were pregnancies and abortions whereas children is too neutral. I don’t know if that makes sense.

Yes these men prey on girls that are related but also non related girls from the same community, they target them outside schools and they pick the girls who they know have dysfunction in their families so know full well they girls won’t be believed over the respectable men, they will be accused of asking for it, the girls can’t get away unless they runaway from home (many do) or when they stop giving the men what they want the girls are threatened with honour crimes. The male privilege is on another level. I wish there was help for girls from the community but unless we have the guts to speak out and family support we will carry on being silent . The trauma we carry is unreal.

I don’t read the language in the BBC article in the same way in this instance. I see the use of “children” through most of it to be about emphasising that the victims are not adults rather than as a way to obfuscate the sex of the victims. In the UK “girl” is still commonly used to refer to adult women, especially in relation to sex. And people often don’t see teen girls as being children when we talk about sexual relations, especially where they are groomed and appear to go along with the abusers of their own accord.

So I think the emphasis on the word children in this article is appropriate and more impactful. It is clear from early on that the victims are girls. there are references to them sprinkled throughout, and the photos make it clear. The focus on their age and making it clear to the general reader that they are children is more necessary than consistently ensuring they are clear they’re talking about female children.

www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint

I’m so sorry this happened to you. It’s inexcusable. I hope you’ve been able to get support elsewhere.