Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘I WAS FORCED TO LET RAPIST VISIT MY CHILD’
Girl abused at 14, has baby at 15 and is then ordered to allow dad to see the youngster
A GIRL made pregnant at 14 was ordered to let the alleged rapist see her tot.
She feared arrest if she defied social services in yet another Telford scandal. The girl said: “I was traumatised.”
A WOMAN preyed on by paedophiles as a schoolgirl today claims she was ordered to let a man who repeatedly raped her have access to her child.
The woman was 14 when she says she was targeted by a man in the Telford sex grooming scandal.
She fell pregnant twice and says she was warned she faced arrest unless she allowed the man to see the youngster. Her story comes days after Rotherham mum Sammy Woodhouse told how a man who raped her was also offered parental rights over her son.
Last night, police said lessons had been learned from the Telford victim’s ordeal. But a second case in only a matter of days will raise concerns as to how many more women and children may have been similarly affected.
The victim – who we are calling Alison to protect her identity – said: “This has been happening for years and it’s an absolute disgrace. I was forced to take my child to a contact centre to see my abuser, where I had to sit across from him. He wanted to hurt me by targeting the thing I loved most in the world. It was just another way of trying to control me. Despite the fact I’d repeatedly tried to tell police and social services what was going on, the court allowed him to see my child. I was told I would be held in contempt and arrested if I didn’t take him to the contact centre.
“They made me feel like I was the one in the wrong. I was terrified I’d go to jail. “The whole thing was extremely traumatic. It gave my child nightmares for years.
“It seems like the rights of victims always come second to the rights of perpetrators. The system re-traumatises victims like me. It allows for further emotional abuse.”
The Sunday Mirror revealed earlier this year that up to 1,000 girls could have fallen victim to Telford abusers over four decades. Alison, now 48, was one of the first. She was targeted in the 1980s but says police, social workers and even a GP failed to listen to her cries for help.
She alleges she was asked to leave school over fears she was “setting a bad example” by having a baby at 15. She told authorities the father was a Pakistani man aged 19. He did not sign the birth certificate and took no parental respon- sibility for the child, who is now 32. Yet Alison says the man continued to stalk, beat and rape her for more than two years after the child was born.
She fell pregnant again at 17 and had an abortion – but has no idea whether the father was her original abuser or one of countless more rapists.
VIOLATED
Alison claims she tried to tell police around 30 times about the campaign of terror being waged by her baby’s father.
At 18, she was granted an injunction which barred the man from contacting her, but says he violated it “on an almost daily basis”. She regularly called police but claims they told her they could not intervene.
Despite her repeated complaints, the alleged abuser was not convicted of rape or any sexual offence in relation to Alison. The man – later jailed for money laundering – sought access when the child was three.
Contact fizzled out when the youngster was seven. Alison is speaking out as she backs a campaign aimed at stopping men gaining access to children conceived through rape.
It is being spearheaded by Sammy Woodhouse, 33, who has waived anonymity. She told how she was 15 when she had a baby fathered by Rotherham paedophile Arshid Hussain.
Hussain, 43, was jailed for 35 years in 2016 after being found guilty of abusing Sammy and a string of other girls.
West Mercia Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Martin Evans said of Alison’s claims: “The case has understandably had a significant and long-lasting impact on the lady involved and her family. We do not underestimate that impact. “Knowledge and understanding of child sexual exploitation has moved on a long way.
“I offer my reassurance to any victims who report child sexual abuse, whether it happened recently or some time ago, that they will be dealt with by our dedicated team with respect and dignity.”
Shropshire Council, in charge of Telford social services at the time, did not comment.
They made me feel like I was the one in the wrong... I felt terrified VICTIM ALISON ON BEING MADE TO MEET ‘ABUSER’