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| Victim: Emma, now 24, (picture posed by model) who was raped every week
by a paedophile ring, says she kept the clothes she was abused in but
South Yorkshire Police lost the evidence and told her a prosecution was
unlikely |
A
13-year-old schoolgirl 'raped once a week, every week' by an Asian gang
from Rotherham saved the clothing she was abused in and handed it to
police but they lost the evidence and encouraged her to drop the case,
it emerged today.
Emma
was forced to drop the charges after officers told her it was 'her word
against theirs' and it was unlikely her attackers would ever end up in
court.
After
two years of countless rapes her parents, who
made persistent complaints to South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham
Council, sent her abroad so she could escape her abusers once and for
all.
Emma, now 24, was one of 1,400 victims habitually abused
by men in the town – almost all of them of Pakistani origin - and many
of the paedophiles are still walking the streets, she said.
Police treated the victims with contempt, turning a blind eye to their plight and in many cases holding them responsible.
No officers or council employees have faced disciplinary action.
Emma
believes she was initially targeted because she was a virgin and
suffered two years of violent sex attacks because detectives refused to
protect her.
'They (the gang) started introducing alcohol and soft drugs and then at 13 I was sexually exploited by them', she told the BBC's Today programme.
'I
had never had a boyfriend or anything and one man singled me out. I
thought we were friends but then the main perpetrator raped me quite
brutally in front of a number of people.
'From then on I was raped once a week, every week. Then they made me have sex with whoever who wanted to have sex with me.
I reported
it to police after three months of sexual exploitation started. I'd
saved all my clothes I had been raped in and gave it to police as
evidence.
‘But
they lost the clothing so there was no evidence and said it was my word
against his and said it wouldn't result in a conviction or make it to
court.
‘The
men were parking outside my house and threatening my family and the
police said they couldn't offer any protection so I dropped the
charges'.
Emma's case
contains a common threat as the majority of the girls suffered vicious
threats of violence against them and their families stopped them going
to the police.
'I
was raped once a week, every week. Then they made me have sex with
whoever who wanted to have sex with me. I had no choice because they
threatened to get my mum, to gang rape her. They gang raped me why
wouldn't they do that to her'
- Abuse victim Emma
Some
were ‘doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened
with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they
would be next if they told anyone’, the shocking report said.
Emma
said 'My sexual exploitation went on until I was 15 as the authorities
so my parents decided the best thing to do was move me out of the
country.
'What
we have heard there are a lot of young people who suffered the same
because these people were able to walk the streets and go unpunished'.
She was asked why her parents could not prevent her from leaving the house and falling into the clutches of the sex ring.
She said: ''My
parents locked me up as many others did. Locked them in bedrooms and
the house to stop them going out. I went out because I had no choice
because they threatened to get my mum, to gang rape her. They gang raped
me why wouldn't they do that to her. They used to follow her, knew
where she went at one time'.
South Yorkshire Police told MailOnlline: 'An
initial allegation of rape was made, but later withdrawn. After the
complaint was withdrawn, four items of clothing, two coats and two pairs
of trousers, could not be found to be returned to the girl. South
Yorkshire Police paid £140 to the complainant for the loss of property.
'A
second allegation of rape was made in 2003. Police conducted another
thorough investigation, a suspect was identified and evidence was
presented to the Crown Prosecution Service whose decision it is whether a
person can be charged and prosecuted.
'Under
previous legislation, a person under the age of 22 had a defence
against an allegation of rape if they had reason to believe the
complainant was over 16-years-old.
'CPS
considered a like submission from the suspect, as well as the evidence
provided by the complainant, and decided not to proceed with the case.
'This
case has been reviewed by the Force following previous complaints. The
allegations were treated as seriously in 2003 as they would be today and
disciplinary action was not necessary or appropriate'.
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