I was trafficked aged 11 then drugged, tortured and raped by 1,500 men – only an inquiry will get justice for us victims
EMILY VAUGHN was a victim of rape gangs and endured the most unspeakable abuse at the hands of countless perpetrators.
Between the ages of 14 and 20 she was abused, raped and tortured by more than 1,500 men, mostly of Pakistani origin.
None of them has ever been arrested or served time for their despicable crimes.
Today, Emily is calling for a national inquiry into the gangs that operated in practically every large town and city across the UK.
She was trafficked from her home in Wales to various locations, including Telford in Shropshire, and was interviewed for the 2018 inquiry into the abuse in that town.
It concluded that the crimes had been ignored for decades by the authorities, and estimated that well over 1,000 girls had been abused.
Emily, now 35, feels that when she spoke to researchers, they neither listened to her nor took her evidence seriously.
She says: “Some might be quick to label those calling for an inquiry into grooming gangs as aligning with the Far Right. That’s ignoring the victims. It’s essential to focus on the issue at hand.
“I was a victim of trafficking, but my interviews with the researchers were rushed and I don’t think I was even seen by a social worker. All I got was six sessions of NHS counselling.
“I don’t get access to a safe house if I need one because it’s the local authority’s duty to help me — the same local authority that failed me. The whole system is a mess and needs an urgent review.”
Emily was a carefree, happy child, growing up with loving parents in rural Wales.
But after being bullied at secondary school, she was vulnerable and groomed into drug-dealing by her neighbour.
By the time Emily was 12, she had been excluded from school and arrested after defending herself during an attack by a rival drug dealer.
At 14, she started spending time at the local kebab house.
Emily says: “It was such a novelty — kids used to go there and just hang out. The kebab houses were full of young people.”
It was also where she was raped and exploited, over and over by multiple perpetrators.
“I didn’t know what it was — it never had a name,” she says.
The first of her many experiences of gang rape happened when she was 14 and a friend took her to meet some boys who worked at the local Indian takeaway.
“We went down the promenade, and got talking to a lad, who took us to meet an older Pakistani man sitting in a car.”
Because the weather was freezing, Emily agreed to get in the car.
“All of a sudden, other Pakistani men squashed in the back seat, and I was trapped,” she adds.
“I was terrified because so many hands were pulling at my trousers and underneath my clothes, and the car was moving very fast.”
She was eventually able to get out and run to a building where, again, she found herself trapped.
The men came after her, pushed her down on the ground and repeatedly raped her.
Afterwards, bleeding, in agony, and sobbing, she was told: “Just get your clothes on and shut up crying, you whitey slag.”
She recalls: “Their tactics are to break you down, to take all your self-worth and confidence, so it feels like it’s all your fault.
“Telling me I was a white slag, a piece of dirt — you start to believe it.”
Afterwards, Emily noticed a large bite mark above her breast, and felt a burning pain in her abdomen and between her legs.
She recalls: “I started doing more and more drugs and alcohol, which was easy because the men would give them to me in return for sex.”
They also threatened her with knives if she ever tried to run away or speak out about the abuse.
Often, after yet another rape, Emily would be “rewarded” with crisps and Bacardi. She became desperate for attention, mistaking it for love.
‘It feels like it’s all your fault’
The men would show fake affection before abusing her, telling her she was only doing “what all teenagers did”. Isolated from her schoolfriends, and hanging around only with other abused girls, Emily knew no better.
“I would be told they were taking me to the pub for a drink, and I was really pleased, but when I got there I would be taken to a room where there were men waiting for me, and I would be raped again.
“I wanted to tell the police, but I was too frightened of what the men would do if they were crossed, particularly with so much drugs involved.”
Emily was arrested numerous times during these years, for drug possession or violent behaviour.
She recalls: “A lot of the men who were Pakistani used English names, so that you never really knew who they were.
“There were absolutely loads of girls in the town. There were so many. The police must have known, but they just left us there.
“A public inquiry could potentially offer more transparency and accountability because it’s going to allow for greater public scrutiny and involvement.
My passion at the moment is policy and research, working on modern slavery legislation
Emily Vaughn
“Victims will know that their voices are going to be heard. An independent inquiry might be more focused and less influenced by political pressures.”
The Telford grooming scandal did not just ruin the lives of more than 1,000 young girls. It also resulted in a triple murder.
A 2022 inquiry found that agencies blamed the children for the abuse they suffered and that exploitation was not investigated properly due to a “nervousness about race”.
Inquiry chairman Tom Crowther QC said the abuse thrived unchecked for decades.
At the heart of the scandal were the killings of Lucy Lowe, 16, her 17-year-old sister Sarah and their mum Eileen, 49, in a house fire started by Azhar Ali Mehmood in August 2000.
Taxi driver Mehmood, then 26, fathered Lucy’s daughter when she was just 14 and was jailed for life.
For Emily, the future is certainly brighter than her past.
She has recently become a trustee at Buckinghamshire charity SafeStep Foundation, which provides support and advice to victims of child sexual exploitation in the area.
Emily is passionate about the work, and sees it as the only way to reduce the risk of girls like her being targeted by these perpetrators.
“My passion at the moment is policy and research, working on modern slavery legislation, on the standard of care, and making sure that the people running the criminal justice system are trained properly to identify exploitation in children.”
Will she ever get justice for what these men did to her?
She concludes: “I think justice can mean different things. It can be feeling safe. It can be feeling empowered.”
- Emily’s name has been changed.
‘The damage done affects me every day’
By Ann Cusack
CHRISTINA O’CONNOR is a survivor of the biggest Asian grooming scandal so far brought to light – and even now, almost two decades on, she is unable to move on with her life.
She was the main prosecution witness in the Huddersfield grooming gang trials, in which 11 men, mainly of Pakistani heritage, were convicted of 43 offences against her, including 22 counts of rape.
The gang were eventually jailed for a total of 221 years in 2018.
A happy child from a loving family, Christina was 14 when she fell into the clutches of the child sex ring.
She was beaten, raped repeatedly and mentally abused daily.
When her family were threatened, she had sex with gang members to keep her kin safe, with some of the rapists using plastic bags for contraception.
Now she has slammed the Government’s decision not to hold a national inquiry into grooming gangs, saying it puts other young girls at risk.
She adds: “A national inquiry was the perfect chance for the Government to show they support the victims and acknowledge the failures in the system.
“It doesn’t surprise me that it was voted down this week, but it’s so disappointing.
“There were so many mistakes by the agencies who should have been looking after me.
“They will now never be held to account – yet the damage done to me and to my family impacts me every day.
‘They beat me up’
“An inquiry is needed to make sure the same mistakes aren’t being made right now. Lessons must be learned.
“Sweeping it under the carpet just means the failings will be repeated with other young girls.”
Christina, from Huddersfield, who has waived her right to anonymity, recalls being a “model pupil” until the age of 13 when she suffered bullying because she was slightly overweight.
As she waited for the school bus one day, she met a group of men who plied her with pizza, vodka and cannabis.
As time passed, Christina realised she was expected to do something in return for the “gifts”.
She says: “I was confused. One of the gang asked me to be his girlfriend but then they started passing me around.
“When I tried to leave the gang, after the first rape, they beat me up. They threatened to kill my mum.
“I didn’t dare tell anyone the truth of what was happening because I thought it would cause more trouble.
“Ironically, I thought I was the one in the wrong.”
My childhood was stolen from me and I will never get it back.
Christina O'Connor
Aged 15, Christina fell pregnant to one of the abusers and the gang forced her to have an abortion.
They then made her commit street robberies and thefts before she was arrested and sent to a young offender institution.
It was there that a breakthrough came.
The prison chaplain heard Christina’s story and was convinced that her crimes were just another aspect of the grooming.
Christina agreed to speak to the police, but it would be another three years before investigators took action.
Two years after her release, her police statement was found at the back of a filing cabinet and Operation Tendersea, the investigation into the grooming gang, was launched.
The gang, masterminded by Amere Singh Dhaliwal, were jailed over three trials at Leeds Crown Court.
But Christina remains haunted and feels angered by the lack of support, as well as let down by police, social services and doctors.
She says: “My childhood was stolen from me and I will never get it back.
“There is so much pain which still remains.
“I haven’t had the support I needed, and I don’t think any of the girls did. We were just left to swim – or sink.”