A survivor of sexual abuse in Rotherham has revealed the shocking scale of exploitation she endured, describing how the abuse became “normalised” during her teenage years.
Speaking on GB News, ‘Elizabeth’, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, detailed her harrowing experience of being trafficked and abused for four and a half years, beginning when she was just 14 years old.
“My abuse was facilitated by a woman to start with, and then it went on to being trafficked, abused and raped by gangs of men,” she said.
Her father was arrested while attempting to rescue her from a property where she was being held.
Elizabeth praised Maggie Oliver, who has been campaigning tirelessly to raise the issue
PA / GB NEWS
Elizabeth described feeling isolated during her ordeal, with the impact of shame and blame continuing until the publication of the Alexis Jay report into Rotherham.
“It’s quite crazy really, because it had been normalised that much that really, I didn’t accept that I was a victim until the Jay report, when I was going on, 28 years old,” she told GB News.
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‘Elizabeth’ joined Patrick on GB News
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The survivor first met former detective Maggie Oliver last year during a meeting with then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman in Rochdale.
Elizabeth praised Oliver’s commitment to exposing abuse, saying: “It’d have been quite easy for Maggie to have ignored it, like the rest of them, pocketed her pension and walked away.”
She emphasised the importance of supporting survivors who have “nowhere to turn to” and face psychological problems throughout their lives.
“I do quite a lot within campaigning… something that drives me to do that is giving a voice to the voiceless,” Elizabeth said.
Charlie Peters speaks to grooming gang victimGB News
She stressed the vital role of whistleblowers like Oliver in preventing future abuse: “We need whistleblowers like Maggie and we need to be giving them the confidence to do all that so there’s no other victims.”
Her testimony comes amid growing pressure for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, with Rotherham MP Sarah Champion calling child sexual abuse in the UK “endemic”.
Champion has proposed a “Telford-style” inquiry led locally but coordinated nationally by the Home Office.
New police data shows that where ethnicity was recorded, 85 per cent of “group-based” child abusers were white in the first three quarters of 2024.
Recent polling by More in Common found 60 per cent of people believe the current Labour Government has not done enough to tackle grooming gangs.
Some 41 per cent of those surveyed thought the activities of grooming gangs had been deliberately covered up.