The Betrayed Girls
documentary / 8.30pm / BBC1
‘I felt totally alone. There was no one to help me, no one to listen. So it just went on,’ says one child victim of sexual abuse. This documentary looks at the grooming of young white girls in the north west of England by gangs of mainly Pakistani men. Following on from the recent drama Three Girls, it tells the story of what happened, and asks why nothing was done to help the girls for over a decade. The police and social services knew, yet the abuse continued. The accounts from the victims are horrific, the lack of action from authorities utterly shameful, but this film highlights the people, including detective Maggie Oliver, who made a difference and who fought for the girls’ right to be heard and protected.