A young woman who was groomed, trafficked, and raped by dozens of men from the age of 14 in Manchester has come forward with harrowing evidence of her ordeal. Scarlett, now 20, has kept videos and photos on a damaged iPad, documenting four years of systematic abuse before she finally escaped at 18.
"I Knew I Would End Up Dead": A Descent into Exploitation
Scarlett's childhood in a Manchester middle-class family unravelled after her parents separated and she was diagnosed with ADHD. Her life spiralled rapidly after a vicious attack by a gang, where she was kicked, held at knifepoint, and set on fire. In the aftermath, she was raped by the gang's leader. "I think at this point, my head just went. I was just a different person now," she recalls.
She was then introduced to an older girl, 'Leila', who initially acted as a protector and friend. Their relationship turned predatory when Leila began taking Scarlett to hotels to take drugs. Scarlett woke up one night to find herself in a room with used condoms on the floor and Leila being handed cash by men. "I'd not realised what had been going on for all these months and now she was kind of like prostituting me out pretty much," Scarlett says.
A System That Failed: Care Homes, Police, and Continued Abuse
Despite her father placing her into the care system from age 14 to keep her safe, the grooming continued. Men would pick her up from care homes. The gangs used Scarlett and other girls to sell drugs. The abuse was relentless, often leaving her with physical marks. "I knew stuff had gone on in that room that I probably don't want to ever remember," she states.
She describes scrubbing herself raw with a nail brush, feeling "pure filth." Reports to police when she went missing led to little action. "Even if they did find me, I'd be back in a day," she says, believing she would eventually be killed.
Other Voices: Danielle and Zara's Parallel Horrors
Scarlett is not alone. Danielle, 21, from Peckham, London, was exploited after entering care following a rape at age 11. She was held prisoner and repeatedly raped by a gang of mainly black men in Croydon when she was 14. "You just have to do what they tell you to do to be able to survive," she explains.
Another survivor, 'Zara', was just 11 when she was first sexually assaulted by groomers who took her to a shed down an alleyway. Now 15, she is still threatened by her abusers and is too scared to go out alone.
The ethnicity of perpetrators remains a complex and under-recorded issue. National police forces only record the ethnicity of around 37% of suspects. While Scarlett says most of her abusers were of Asian ethnicity, Danielle stresses her attackers were "all different colours and of all different ethnicities." A government-backed review by Baroness Casey found the lack of data was "a major failing."
Broken Trust and a Chaotic Inquiry
All three survivors criticise the police and care systems for failing to protect them or properly investigate. Danielle says police "never followed up" her reports, while care workers would shout that they "couldn't be bothered" looking for missing girls.
Their stories emerge as a national inquiry into grooming gangs has been thrown into chaos after victims and potential chairs withdrew. "Sometimes I feel like our stories have been hijacked," says Scarlett. "There's been all this talk about grooming gangs this year, but no one's been speaking for me."
Despite the bleak outlook, Scarlett finds a sliver of hope: "But at least people are waking up to the fact grooming gangs have not gone away - there's probably one in a town near you right now." None of her abusers have been brought to justice.
Greater Manchester Police stated that child protection is a priority and an extensive investigation into Scarlett's allegations is underway. The Metropolitan Police noted a threefold increase in solved child sexual exploitation cases in the past year. Snapchat said it works closely with law enforcement to combat such activity on its platform.
