Time to open our eyes to abuse and exploitation of vulnerable children

Emma was 17 years old when she walked in to a Barnado’s project. Staff remember a hollow-eyed teenager who spoke little, but said enough for them to know she needed help.

As she began to open up, it emerged she had first been taken into care at the age of 13 months and had spent much of her early years being passed between her mother and a series of foster families. An attempt at adoption broke down and shortly afterwards the sexual abuse began.

Emma was then seven-years-old and 10 years on she had blocked out much of the detail of the abuse. She could see the location, she could still feel the pain, but the man’s face was always a blur.

“I don’t like to remember, it hurts,” she says. “But I do know that after that I started behaving badly at school, I didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. It felt like my ability to speak had been taken away.

“I couldn’t form any real relationships and I ended up running away when I was 14. I was sleeping rough and staying on friends’ sofas. I liked living alone. I didn’t like being told what to do. I never had an adult in my life who I could trust or rely on. Everyone had let me down and I didn’t want to get hurt anymore.

“So I was going out all the time, getting drunk and meeting guys. I met an older man who I believed loved me, all I wanted was to be loved by someone.”

The man Emma thought wanted to be her boyfriend was in his early 30s. He showered her not only with attention, but also with alcohol and drugs. He picked her up in a top-of-the-range car and gave her a mobile phone. For a child with very little it was enticing. However, his real motives soon became clear when he began forcing Emma to have sex with his friends.

“I really thought he loved me, I would have done anything for him,” she says. “Then it all got really confusing. I just hoped that one day one of the men would want to be a real boyfriend, that he’d like me for the real me and that he’d want to save me. But that never happened. I got taken to flats, I don’t know where they were, and men would be brought to me. I was never given any names and I don’t remember their faces.

“My mobile number was given out and I got loads of frightening calls. I was terrified. I felt sick.”

Eventually, Emma did manage to run away and was found by the police. However, she was too distressed to give a formal statement, let alone face the prospect of going to court, and the crimes against her went unpunished.

To those who work at Barnado’s it is an all-too-familiar story and not one just confined to those who find themselves slipping through the safety net of social care.

It was 16 years ago that the charity set up its first service for sexually exploited children and young people in Bradford. At the time Streets and Lanes was championed as a pioneering service to support some of society’s most vulnerable young people and a vital intiative to dispel the widespread belief that many of the children had knowingly entered into prostitution and were somehow responsible for their own abuse.

Work by the charity over the last decade and a half has done much to change attitudes and, having proved a success in Bradford, it has since been rolled out to another 21 towns and cities. However, the problem remains widespread. According to Barnardo’s latest research, only a minority of those guilty of child exploitation are ever made to answer their crimes in a courtroom. Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that in 2009 there were just 89 convictions for child sexual exploitation in England and Wales. However, the charity insists at least 2,756 children are known to have been victims.

Even in those case that do make it to court, the successful prosecution rate is low. During the same period, of the 444 defendents accused of raping a child under 13, 180 were found guilty.

“These children are being let down terribly by the system. They are being failed twice; once by the failure to prevent them becoming victims in the first place and again by the failure to punish their abusers and secure justice,” says Ann Marie Carrie, the charity’s chief executive.

“We need to see drastic changes to make sure the abusers who control such vulnerable children for sex and personal gain are brought to book.

“We are expecting too much of children to carry the weight of court cases on their young shoulders. Trials can be traumatic and painful experiences for children – especially when multiple perpetrators are involved. And when children do have the courage to take the stand we need to make sure that they have the support that they deserve the wholw way through the process.”

Recent high-profile cases have brought the issue into sharp relief. Earlier this year Mohammed Liaqat and Abid Saddique, both in their late 20s, were jailed at Nottingham Crown Court for raping and sexually abusing several girls after giving them alcohol and drugs.

The grooming of vulnerable teenage girls for sex is currently under investigation by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, but those who work on the frontline of child protection know that each case is different and the victims do not fit into a neat box. While many have been through the care system and are a product of troubled upbringings, a few bad decisions can lead even those from loving homes down a dangerous path.

Later this year, the Government will publish an action plan setting out how the police and other agencies can help stamp out crimes of child exploitation, but after 16 years of dealing witht the victims, Barnardo’s fears that may not be enough.

“Vulnerable, defenceless girls and boys who crave love and attention are groomed and then abused for years on end,” adds Ms Carrie. “The great tragedy is that more often than not the children are never cut free from their exploitation. It remains hidden, taking place out of sight in our towns and cities and the victims are becoming younger and the exploitation more sophisticated.

“Often the tell-tale signs are overlooked. As a society we need to acknowledge that child exploitation can exist in every community. The sooner we open our eyes to this incomprehensible abuse, the sooner we can begin to tackle the problem and ensure that we intervene early.

“The Government needs to appoint a minister who will take responsibility and deliver a step change in policy. Until it takes the lead to protect children fully, they will remain at too great a risk from all the horrors of sexual exploitation.”

While the picture Barnardo’s paints is bleak, its work, which began all those years ago in Bradford, has resulted in some success stories.

“The project worker I saw seemed to care, so I began to let her in,” says Emma. “I used to have moments where I would feel really sorry for myself, but she helped me look at what I had got, not what I hadn’t got. She also helped me to remember there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Now I have the strength not to let anything stand in my way and to never give up. I know that life is hard and you just have to make the best of it. My worker said if I let my past ruin my future, I would be letting all those bad guys win and she was right. Because of her advice and belief in me I have never given up.”

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