Safety plea by mother of rape horror schoolgirl

THE mother of a schoolgirl who was ambushed, tied up and raped eight times by two men as she walked home in Macclesfield is pleading with Cheshire East to consider personal safety when assessing school walking routes.

The woman, who the Express won’t name, turned up at the children and families scrutiny meeting in Sandbach on Tuesday with the intention of appealing directly to councillors - but she was so upset she couldn’t go through with it.

The attack on her daughter happened in Macclesfield several years ago, but the family are still suffering from the horrific ordeal the teenager was subjected to for several hours.

The mum, who we will call Sue, (not her real name) has only con- tacted us because she is desperate to stop another child being attacked - and she fears this could happen if Cheshire East removes the free bus from Bollington to Tytherington School, meaning children would walk the Middlewood Way.

“My daughter was attacked as she walked past some bushes,” said Sue. There were about 20 yards of bushes where it happened, there must be at least a mile of bushes along the Middlewood her. They bundled her into a van and tied her up telling her to be quiet. She didn’t know where she was until later.

“They raped her eight times. They had taken her to a caravan.”

Eventually, in the morning, the girl, who was still blindfolded, sensed the men had gone and made her way to a cottage where an elderly couple contacted the police.

Sue said: “My daugh- ter never got over it. It has traumatised us all. I can’t bear the thought of this happening to another family.”

No one was ever convicted of the attack.

It is highly unlikely Sue - or her family - will be able to stand up at September’s cabinet meeting and appeal directly to the cabinet members - face to face.

They can’t face re-living such a horrific ordeal which has devastated them all. That’s why Sue’s allowing her story to be told in the Express. The council say the routes have been reclassified to help tackle pupil obesity and could save £495,000 by 2019.

The children and families scrutiny committee decided the Middlewood way was not safe at a special meeting and should be removed from the policy. The council’s cabinet will now have the final say.