https://x.com/SamanthaTaghoy/status/1874608348827705614

If you want to know how Labour-led areas treat abuse survivors, here’s a (brief) insight into my story: One of my earliest memories is sitting on his lap in the garden, and a hand going into my underwear. I was five. I knew that it didn’t feel nice and I wanted it to stop. But I also had no frame of reference for what was normal and what wasn’t. The abuse continued for years, at the hands of multiple different men throughout my childhood and teen years. Eventually, I confided in a social worker and filed a police report detailing the years of abuse that I had experienced. But, as many other girls systematically groomed in Telford have also testified, I was made to feel as though I was to blame. The system criminalised the victims, rather than going after the perpetrators. I remember being asked by a detective whether I “consented” at any point to sexual activity, and told by a social worker that “my actions had led me to where I was today”.

All the while the Labour-led council tried to block an independent inquiry into CSE for years and their Council Leader (now the MP for Telford), along with 10 other powerful local men, even wrote a letter to the Home Secretary saying they felt an inquiry would unnecessary. Little girls in Telford were branded child prostitutes and p*ki shaggers — my West Mercia Police, no less. In Rotherham, Rochdale and elsewhere, victims were continually swept aside by those in positions of power, as if they chose this lifestyle. The attitudes that social workers, local services, authorities had towards children was so skewed, and so deeply unprofessional. And my case, like 96.5 per cent of all sex crime cases in the UK, never resulted in prosecution. I was told that there was an unrealistic prospect of conviction against any of my abusers, due to the historic nature of my case.

It broke me. And I spent years in silence because I thought I would somehow be judged or penalised for the abuse I had suffered. Because I had been conditioned to feel like I was somehow responsible for my own victimisation. The Telford scandal made headlines when it broke in 2015, then again when the Crowther Report was released in 2022. Yet, The news cycle moved on far too quickly. This isn’t a 60-second-and-then-done issue. For change to occur, there needs to be constant attention brought to this issue because, otherwise, silence and ignorance only serves to support the predators and the paedophiles.

This is a crime that thrives on misinformation, on fears of “racism” and a lack of awareness, and on being swept under the rug. They rely on girls not being taken seriously, the media not caring and the police not taking any action to investigate. These are not crimes of the past. Kids are still being exploited, groomed, raped and even murdered in council estates like mine. It isn’t enough to have empty words and hollow promises.

I even went on national TV to discuss Pakistani grooming gangs in Telford and the continued risk of abuse faced by little girls in my hometown.The next day, officers banged on my door, demanding I speak to them about my interview. They ignored victims for decades, but tried to intimidate me for speaking about their failings on live TV. CSE is a national epidemic.

But those in power continue to treat it like a localised issue, choosing to believe that the extent of the abuse is contained to a few bad towns and pockets of bad apples. That couldn’t be further from the truth. But those in power refuse to address that fact for fear of being forced to confront their decades-long failure to protect young girls from abuse. It’s easier to ignore victims, especially when they come from communities, social classes or demographics that are already disenfranchised in Britain. And for those who do speak out, it feels like you are screaming at a brick wall that would rather label you as the problem than take you seriously.