An independent inquiry led by MP Rupert Lowe heard testimony alleging victims of grooming gangs were threatened with being taken to Pakistan, prompting calls for a government investigation into potential overseas trafficking.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
An independent inquiry examining grooming gang crimes across England heard testimony last week alleging that some victims were threatened with being taken abroad, leading the inquiry’s chairman, MP Rupert Lowe, to call for a formal government investigation into whether missing girls from affected areas may have been trafficked overseas.
The inquiry, launched by the Greater Yarmouth MP, is reviewing cases of mass sexual exploitation involving predominantly Pakistani Muslim men in multiple English cities. During hearings in London, survivors described alleged attempts by their abusers to take them to Pakistan.
One victim told the inquiry: “They said they wanted to take me back to meet their families. So luckily I didn’t have a passport, otherwise I might not be sat here right now.”
Lowe said that multiple witness statements suggest sexually abused girls may have been trafficked outside the United Kingdom.
“I believe there are currently countless British women being used as sex slaves overseas. This may sound insane. It is not. Look at these gangs. Nobody would have believed the extent of the evil before it was uncovered. This is very real,” Lowe said.
“Our inquiry believes that this is the current reality for a terrifying number of women,” he added.
Testimony presented to the inquiry described what survivors characterized as a coordinated network operating across multiple cities. One victim told the panel: “There’s a very big network. It’s in Derby, Birmingham, there’s Sheffield, there’s Newcastle, there’s Leeds, there’s Barnsley. So you’d get taken to, say, Burton, and then he’d take you to a house, and then they’d send men in, like a conveyor belt.”
Other witnesses described what they said was a racial and religious dimension to the abuse. One survivor, who stated she had been victimized by “mainly Pakistani” men, told the inquiry: “They used to, like, tell me things about the good angel and the bad angel that I’ve been, like, kind of possessed. And they’ve got to punish me to get the badness out of me.
“That’s why they have to rape me and do all this stuff to me, to get the badness out of me. I’ve got to be punished. Yeah. And it was just all kind of stuff like that. The words they say to you, you’re ‘gora, like white trash and white skin.”
Another witness recounted being taken to what she described as a “party house” during the Islamic holiday of Eid, stating that one of her abusers said his “relatives were coming from Birmingham to celebrate Eid and they were expecting girls to be waiting here for them.”
Several survivors testified that the abuse extended beyond sexual assault. One witness said: “I’ve had a knife at my throat because he wanted me to ‘sort out’ 10, 15 cars full of men. I’d get kidnapped. I don’t think people realise, I think they think it’s rape, but it was torture as well. I’d be kidnapped and I’d be locked in a room. And I’d be beaten. I’d be told if I don’t do this, I’m not going to go home. So it was a lot more than just rape.”
Allegations of institutional failures were also raised. One survivor told the inquiry: “The police didn’t do anything last time. I told them that it was essentially forced. And they smirked at me in my own home and left. So, I mean… there was no evidence that they were going to do anything different, that they were going to actually support us.”
Another said that National Health Service staff did not take action after she presented with sexually transmitted diseases at age 13 and later with a miscarriage.
Commenting on what he described as institutional complicity, Lowe said: “I want to see senior police officers in prison. With the evidence we are collecting, there is simply no way hundreds of men and women right at the top of their forces were not aware of the rapes. Hundreds, if not more. Politicians, police, council officials, NHS, social care – all of them.
“If they knew and did nothing, they shouldn’t just be sacked, they should be prosecuted. A lot of people need to go to prison.”
Lowe has urged the government to examine cases of missing girls in areas affected by grooming gangs to determine whether victims may have been trafficked abroad. The inquiry continues to collect testimony as it seeks to assess the scale of abuse and potential institutional failures tied to the cases.
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