As early as the 1970s, vulnerable girls living in the Shropshire town of Telford were easy prey for gangs of mainly Asian men who groomed, exploited, raped and in some cases even killed them. Operating in plain sight, the exploiters were emboldened by the fact that the police and local authorities seemed uninterested in investigating the horrific crimes. Worried more about igniting racial tensions than protecting children, West Mercia Police repeatedly failed to listen to victims or challenge perpetrators, a damning report has found. It is estimated that more than 1,000 children fell victim to the perpetrators, while only a few men were brought to justice. Following child abuse scandals in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford, the report published on Tuesday revealed the scale of the failings of those whose job it was to protect the vulnerable. For decades the abusers – who were mainly Asian men – operated with impunity in the Telford area, even setting up a ‘rape house’ where victims were ferried to be assaulted. Pedophiles used a tried and tested approach to target and exploit their victims – using the method that became known as the ‘loverboy’. Grooming often began when girls were in their early teens, but sometimes when they were even younger. The men would deliberately seek out vulnerable children and quickly win them over by offering them lifts or buying them alcohol and cigarettes. One victim described how the typical abuser would aim to meet as many girls as he could, particularly those on the fringes of friendship groups or who seemed to crave attention.
The taxi drivers were working together to cheat the girls
The city’s local taxi industry, operated largely by Asian men, played a key role in the abuse. The report describes “numerous reports of children being subjected to unwanted sexual attention in taxis, which in some cases led to rape or other serious sexual assault by the driver”. The report also found that taxi drivers had colluded to cheat girls. “Asian men will pick up a girl in a taxi when they are drunk, stop at a shop, supposedly to buy a drink, and then drive away, leaving the girl abandoned,” a witness told the inquest. “He will then call other men, one of whom will pick up the girl, ‘rescuing’ her, with the others driving to a pre-arranged location ready for the second taxi to bring the girl there so all the men can rape her ». Gangs even targeted girls during lunchtime at school, picking them up and dropping them off with little concern that their activities would be noticed. Fast food outlets in the area were also a gateway to abuses. The upstairs rooms in the toilets were used “to commit serious sexual assaults” and the girls were given jobs at the weekend and then went upstairs to get laid. The abusers would convince the girls that they were their boyfriends and despite the often huge age difference would force them to engage in sexual activity.
Many girls got pregnant
Most abusers did not use contraception and many of the girls became pregnant. Some were encouraged to dismiss, but others continued to bring in the children of their abusers. In one such case, a girl named Lucy Lowe was targeted by taxi driver Azhar Ali Mehmood when she was just 12 years old. She gave birth to her first daughter when she was just 14 and was pregnant with her second child in 2000 when Mehmood, 26, doused her house with petrol and set it on fire, killing her and two other family members. He was jailed for life in October 2001 but showed little remorse and despite the shocking details of the case, little was done at the time to investigate whether such sexual exploitation was evident elsewhere in Telford. Other victims have received death threats, with the perpetrators often citing Lucy Lowe’s case as a warning of what could happen to them if they don’t comply. Tom Crowther QC, who presided over the inquest, said: “The nature of the crimes often involved brainwashing young people into believing they had meaningful, loving and mutual relationships, even if such apparent mutuality involved them engaging in things that deep down they knew what they were doing. doesn’t want to do. “Although some children spoke to professionals about their situation, for some time these professionals did not understand that these ‘relationships’ were exploitative.” When authorities investigated allegations of exploitative relationships, they failed to focus on the role of Asian men for fear of being “too politically correct”, the report said. West Mercia Police was described as a “hot potato” in dropping cases if complaints were made against Asian offenders because it was a “very difficult category”.
Police decisions ‘influenced by assumptions about race’
A witness who gave evidence said: “It seemed to be … because of the nationality of the people involved, they felt the police were afraid to question or challenge them because they didn’t want to point the finger at them saying they were racist.” The report suggested that the police and the local council were putting a higher priority on avoiding igniting racial tensions than protecting the vulnerable. The report said: “I am satisfied that in some cases decisions by West Bank Police officers about whether or not to investigate a particular piece of information or complaint were influenced by assumptions about race.” On Tuesday night West Mercia Police issued an unequivocal apology to all victims of the abuse. Speaking on behalf of West Mercia Police, Assistant Chief Constable Richard Cooper said: “I would like to apologise. Apologies to the survivors and all those affected by child sexual exploitation in Telford. “Although there were no findings of corruption, our actions fell far short of the help and protection you should have had from us, it was unacceptable, we let you down.”
