When did you first hear of the awful sexual abuse in Telford?

[Gogster]

I heard about it about a week ago - utterly shameful. Husband had literally just heard about it 5 minutes ago when I told him.

Where has the coverage of this been?

AIBU to think it's not just my ignorance, the media has been silent on this?

I haven’t heard anything? Do you have a link?

It happened around 15 years ago, right? It was a big news story. I used to live in the area, so I heard accounts from people who had seen dodgy stuff but no one knew the scale or how awful things were for those poor girls.

You won’t hear about anything like this on MSM, switch to GB News, who aren’t afraid to report the true news, Mark Stein, Mon-Thurs 8pm til 9pm, regularly raises this issue and interviews the victims of these crimes, not just Telford, but Rotherham and Manchester too.

the independent enquiry reports are here: static1.squarespace.com/static/5cc814eee8ba44aa938d883c/t/62cd9f93d1afb577e0f4d785/1657642904848/IITCSE+REPORT+-+VOLUME+ONE.pdf

all here www.iitcse.com/

14 years ago when I got together with DP. He lived in the area as a student. It was not a secret; lots of people knew it was going on but were too afraid to say something and the ones that did were often labelled racist.

I’ve never watched GB news in my life and have seen and read about this in the normal media over the past week.

Thought it was reported on years ago?

This is just a new flurry of coverage due to updated in what happened regarding the police not giving a shit

A couple of years ago.

I was born in and grew up in Telford, and am the same age as many of the victims of this awful situation. I had family members who were teachers in Wellington for years.

None of us had any idea this was going on. I can only assume this is because we are white middle class, although I understand this affected a lot of different people.

It makes me very angry that this happened, and on this scale.

I think the first convictions were about ten or so years ago, but appeared to be the tip of the iceberg, hence the recent inquiry - had taken several years to complete - but I think I've been aware of it throughout that period.

At the time, it was reported in regular news outlets IIRC. It was also mentioned alongside the Rochdale reporting. It's on the news again now with more detail now but I suppose more has come out due to the inquiry. It's all awful, and I do think it deserved more attention than it got at the time and now. I was glad the BBC made Three Girls about Rochdale, as hard as it was to watch.

I find it incredibly sad that it seems very similar in essence to events in Rochdale and Rotherham - with similar time scales. Creates concern for me that this is likely to have been happening in other locations.

Ah, this is rather local to me. Local people are really angry at the council, who were held accountable alongside police for complete apathy, and they have actually gone radio silent for the past week and not replied to any enquiries. They have shut the doors. Some MPs and councillors were named in the report for their particular inaction, but no one has resigned or been pushed. No heads have rolled amongst the council or the police. For those saying this happened 15 years ago - not true. It's still been going on on one form or another to very recent times, possibly still is. And I've seen hardly anything nationally about it, kicked to the kerb for the same reasons the children weren't listened to on the first place - worries about appearing racist. We need to look beyond race and equally and openly investigate and all our systematic sexual abuse in all forms.

Last week's Telford report (see links from Annonnimoouse42 above) supports, with evidence, claims that the systemic sexual abuse and grooming has been widespread back to at least the 1980s.

Telford specifically has definitely been in the news, and talked about on MN, for at least a decade. Here's a thread from June 2011, for example, which links to reporting in The Guardian and other outlets: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/1237481-Girls-treated-as-sexual-gifts. What doesn't get talked about as much by the media is the systemic nature of all of this: the various cases in an individual city are linked, how perps are emboldened by failure of the police to act and by light sentences by the courts, how some cities are in the news due to a specific incident or trial or whistleblower while others (e.g., the whole of Scotland) get almost no scrutiny (or justice for the victims)

Systemic child grooming, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking is still going on even in the places where inquiries and trials have been carried out and (some) perps identified and usually brought to justice, although usually with very light consequences to them. An NSPCC report from earlier this month estimates (based on data from 42 police departments around the UK) that grooming crimes against children have risin 84% in the past four years: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2022/online-grooming-crimes-rise/

It's all far from over.

What are you talking about? It was on the BBC and Sky News, and probably others as well. No need to go looking for some far-right has been.

About 7 years ago when my dear friend killed herself due to these bastards.

I was aware of it years ago, when Oxford, Rochdale, Rotherham etc were identified as centres of abuse. It's endemic with men grooming children from care homes. These children cannot be restrained by home staff, so leave at night and return when they feel like it. Grooming of such vunerable girls is easy, flatter them, give them drink/drugs then rape them. The girls considered themselves in relationships with the men, even though they were shared around. Any taxi firm, chicken shop etc can potentially be a hub. It is not just a northern thing, Oxford and other southern towns & cities are there. This will be going on in your town now, as we all have fostered children, care home children, unhappy children in our communities. Sometimes the child has caring, middle class parents, who do their best to keep their child at home, but it's impossible.

I didn’t know about Telford specifically, but I’ve known that this was a problem in many many major town and cities since about 2008.

People who live in those towns and cities often say it was an open secret for at least a decade before that.

I've managed to keep appraised of it without stooping so low

I watched Three Girls on Mat leave five years ago and it horrified me.

Well I went to school in north wales and loads of my classmates went to Telford all the time, coming home with watches and new shoes. I actually begged my mum to let me go and she told me not to ridiculous we didn't know anyone and I wasn't going with my school friends.

Looking back I am truly horrified. One of my school friends testified and I'm very proud of her. I think one of the girls in my school was actively recruiting for them (obviously groomed herself)

I've seen loads about it, including on the news AND via BBC - I certainly wouldn't stoop so low as to watch GB News and the suggestion that other mainstream media hasn't covered it just isn't true!!

Tragic.💐

The poor 13 year old girl, pregnant by that vile taxi driver, who then set fire to her house, killing the girl, her sister and mother.
These abusers really were absolute scum and appeared to carry on with impunity. Shocking.

That's the worst of it, isn't it?