End the Abuse
Telford: End the Sexual Abuse - Enforce the Law
Telford: End the Sexual Abuse - Enforce the Law
The Mirror has revealed there has been child sex grooming going back 40 years in Telford. The true extent of this horror remains unknown at this time, but the Mirror’s investigations show that up to 1000 girls have been victims of this abuse.
MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, has called for a specific and independent inquiry into this abuse which is sorely needed. As part of this inquiry however, we should ascertain why laws surrounding the age of sexual consent were not enforced and why apparently no medical facilities or staff were concerned about girls under the age of 16 requesting contraception and abortion on an apparently regular basis.
You can read the shocking details of the Telford grooming scandal here, but, as with Rotherham and with other cases of systematic sexual abuse, one common factor that needs to be highlighted is the fact that many of the girls were under 16 and were known to be having sex with much older men, but this was considered “consensual”.
The testimony of one 14-year-old, groomed and abused after her phone number was sold to paedophiles, makes clear that the medical establishment were also aware of the fact that these girls were underage yet apparently did nothing to help them. They only offered contraception and abortion which do nothing but mask the crimes being committed against these girls.
She said: “Night after night, I was forced to have sex with multiple men in disgusting takeaways and filthy houses. I must have been getting the morning after pill from a local clinic at least twice a week but no one asked any questions. I fell pregnant twice and had two abortions. Hours after my second termination, I was taken by one of my abusers to be raped by more men.”
In the UK, engaging in sex remains illegal before the age of 16. Such laws are routinely ignored and their subversion is even encouraged in many settings. But were these laws adhered to, perhaps many of the girls who were systematically abused for 40 years would not have been so.
“Council files show social services, teachers and mental health workers were fully aware of what was happening but did little. They also failed to tell police.” The Rotherham Inquiry found that “Children as young as 11 were deemed to be having consensual sexual intercourse when in fact they were being raped and abused by adults.”
The law which sets the age of sexual consent at 16 exists for a reason and it is in precisely this kind of setting that it should be taken most seriously and enforced most vigorously. These laws act as protection, and the fact that these girls were known to be having sex with men far older and were effectively being coerced into having abortions, should have provided ample evidence that those in authority needed to intervene to protect these girls.
Police, medical staff, teachers, social workers and everyone else in positions of authority need to start taking the age of sexual consent seriously. When it is known that someone under the age of 16 is engaged in sexual activities, this should automatically raise concerns and prompt some kind of investigation into who he/she is having sex with.
Please sign this petition to Lucy Allan MP in support of her demand for a specific and independent review and ask that such an inquiry questions why laws surrounding the age of sexual consent were not enforced.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-worst-ever-child-grooming-12165527
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-43371805
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/telford-child-abuse-inquiry-pm-12207524
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/telford-sex-abuse-scandal-wasnt-brave-enough-talk-race-wish/
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/a-dangerous-silence-over-telford/
Sign this petition now!
Telford Inquiry: Enforce the Law of Sexual Consent
Dear Lucy Allan MP,
I am appalled by the horrific cases of abuse which have been happening in your constituency over the last 40 years and I fully support an independent specific inquiry into the abuse in Telford.
In addition to investigations into the extent of the abuse (both sexual and other forms), there are questions that need to be asked about why there was so little action for so long. Questions need to be asked about
1. why medical staff did not raise concerns when underage girls asked for contraception and abortion, and
2. why laws surrounding the age of sexual consent were apparently routinely ignored.
In relation to these questions, I wish to highlight two points in particular.
Firstly, the Sunday Mirror reveals that “Council files show social services, teachers and mental health workers were fully aware of what was happening but did little. They also failed to tell police.” The Rotherham Inquiry found that “Children as young as 11 were deemed to be having consensual sexual intercourse when in fact they were being raped and abused by adults.”
We know similar assumptions regarding the presumed consent of the girls have been made in Telford, either to avoid an uncomfortable truth about the town or because it was genuinely believed to be true. Either way, the result was the same – the systematic sexual abuse of children continued more or less undisturbed for years.
Why were these cases of underage sex not investigated?
Secondly, I am sure you are aware of the horrifying details of many of the cases that these girls and women were subjected to, but I wish to highlight in particular one case where a 14-year-old girl talks of how she was raped night after night.
"I must have been getting the morning after pill from a local clinic at least twice a week but no one asked any questions. I fell pregnant twice and had two abortions. Hours after my second termination, I was taken by one of my abusers to be raped by more men.”
Medical facilities and staff hold a degree of responsibility for their aiding of paedophiles by apparently not questioning why a 14 year old would want the morning after pill on such a regular basis and undergo more than one (essentially coerced) abortion.
Both of these cases highlight the need for laws surrounding underage sex to be enforced. It remains illegal in the UK to engage in sex under the age of 16, and while such laws are routinely flouted – and, oftentimes, their active subversion encouraged – the Telford sexual abuse case shows that these laws exist in part to protect children. If these laws were taken seriously, efforts would have had to have been made to investigate who these girls were having sex with and even the slightest investigation could well have revealed the true nature of what was happening.
To reiterate: whilst I fully support a specific and independent review into sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Telford, such a review should also investigate and highlight
- why laws surrounding the age of sexual consent were not enforced. These laws are a form of protection for children and we need to ensure they are enforced in future.
- why those in authority especially medical staff, did not act on the information they had.
