Last week, Sammy Woodhouse told in heartbreaking detail how she had been groomed for sex as a schoolgirl by a notorious paedophile gang in Rotherham – and was then betrayed by the authorities. Today, in the final extract from her new book, Sammy reveals how coming to terms with years of abuse led her into a spiral of depression, guilt and thoughts of suicide. Yet worse was to come.
Despite launching a brave quest to bring her abuser to justice, she was again failed by the police and social services and, in the process, faced losing her children. Here, with remarkable courage, Sammy describes how she successfully battled to expose one of the greatest child protection scandals of modern times.
I’ll never forget the moment. It was the autumn of 2012 and I was standing in a queue at a petrol station when I glanced at the front pages of the newspapers. My stomach dropped to the floor. There, in black and white, were allegations from leaked files suggesting three unnamed Asian brothers were known to have groomed and abused young teenage girls in Rotherham from 1999 to 2001, but had never been prosecuted.
The reports were horrifying – 54 girls had believed that one of these men was her boyfriend. Eighteen thought they were the girlfriend of the ringleader. Sickened, I realised with certainty that the men were my former boyfriend, Arshid ‘Ash’ Hussain, and his brothers Basharat and Bannaras, known as Bash and Bono. It was more than a decade after my relationship with Ash had ended, and here I was, finally confronting the appalling truth of what had happened to me as a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
Poster Comment:
Continues at source.