How authorities failed to protect a grooming victim who spoke out against her abusers
Exclusive: Lucy* has been followed, harassed and had her home vandalised since giving evidence that helped convict 20 men
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.“I spoke up to stop the next generation of girls getting abused, but it’s the worst thing in my life that I’ve done,” Lucy tells The Independent.
After being preyed on from the age of 11 by a grooming gang in Huddersfield, Lucy had the courage to come forward and give evidence against her abusers in a series of court cases that saw 20 men jailed.
But despite promises of police protection, the mother says she has been “harassed throughout the trials”.
“I’ve had my windows smashed numerous times,” Lucy said. “I’ve had the defendants’ friends approach me in the corner shop, saying ‘we remember you from Huddersfield’, then they asked for my number.”
Lucy said she has been followed, including while visiting her mother’s grave, and bombarded with phone calls from withheld numbers.
“It’s guys ringing me asking ‘can I come over’ or they say they’re watching me,” she said. “I reported it to the police but they didn’t tell the judge anything.”
Lucy said that when she agreed to formally report her abuse in 2015, West Yorkshire Police promised to install protective measures at her home.
But when a contractor assessed the house and found it needed substantial work including a safe room, the landlord refused to carry it out.
“I’ve moved since so I asked the police again and they’ve said there’s no funding,” Lucy said. “There’s no protection.”
Lucy claims that several men linked to the grooming gang, who abused several girls over more than a decade, remain at large.
The “most serious” abusers have been convicted, she said, but others were questioned on suspicion of less severe crimes and released without further action.
One of the men she recognised worked at Leeds Crown Court, and had contact with her on some of the days when she was giving evidence at the trials.
Police could not find evidence of a criminal offence and no action is believed to have been taken.
Lucy fears that because some members of the network think “they’ve got away with it”, the abuse will continue and be passed from “generation to generation”.
When she asked a police officer why not all of her abusers had been prosecuted, she says they replied: “We can’t get all of them.”
Lucy is trying to rebuild her life, but there has been no respite from what she believes are attempts to terrorise her and her family.
The Independent has viewed CCTV footage of two incidents late last year where groups of Asian men visited the home where Lucy lives with her young child.
In October – the day after guilty verdicts were delivered for her abusers – a man rang the doorbell claiming to be looking for someone.
A week later, a different car pulled up outside the house with four men inside who waited there for over an hour while looking towards the door.
Lucy called the police on both occasions but they did not speak to her at home, and footage shows a patrol car driving past without stopping in the second incident.
She was given a panic alarm and a tracking phone by police to ensure an urgent response but said these “don’t make a difference”.
Lucy’s account of her experience came amid mounting calls for the government to enshrine victims’ rights in law.
The Victims’ Code is meant to ensure minimum standards and help people get support from agencies including the Witness Service, but research found the code is not being properly enforced.
Legal protections are in place for victims of rape and sexual offences, including a law banning anyone from identifying them.
But during the first Huddersfield grooming trial in 2018, a woman published Lucy’s real name, address and car registration online.
Lucy had given evidence from behind a screen in court and her real name was not used in court or media reports.
The woman has not been successfully prosecuted for the offence, or for a campaign of vile harassment where she set up a fake social media account in the victim’s name that claimed the allegations were lies.
The same woman is suspected of vandalising Lucy’s garden, smashing a window and her car’s windscreen.
She also published horrific insults about Lucy’s child, as well as her mother, who died several years ago.
Lucy, who is from a Muslim background, said her mother’s drug addiction first brought her into the grooming gang’s orbit at the age of 11, when dealers started giving her “gifts” and taking her away from their home.
“They gave me food, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs,” she recalled. “They would say to my mum ‘we’ll take care of her, she’s fine with us’. Because my mum had her own difficulties with her drug misuse, she didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going.
“So the abuse from something so small to something major and I couldn’t open up to anybody, because the person I was meant to open up to was vulnerable and not with it enough to understand what I was going through.”
Lucy said she thought the men were “nice people” at first, but they soon started to sexually abuse her and pass her between friends.
She recalls several incidents where police found her with her abusers, saying that on one occasion she was detained for being under the influence of drugs.
“I was off my face on drugs and I had a handbag full of condoms, but then I was just thrown back onto the streets,” Lucy said.
She believes she was taken into care because authorities thought she was “prostituting” herself, but the grooming gang traced her to a children’s home and repeatedly abducted her to be raped.
Lucy was then placed with foster carers in different areas, but said the “cycle of abuse never stopped”.
“I don’t know how they were finding me,” she said. “Everywhere you were, they knew where you were.”
When she was 15, she fell pregnant by one of her rapists and had an abortion. Months later, she became pregnant again and says one of her foster carers prevented her from having another termination.
“She said I wasn’t allowed to get rid of the child, it was against Islam and I’d get thrown in hell if I was to have an abortion,” Lucy said.
Lucy claims the woman then attempted to identify the father and force Lucy to marry him, but failed. The man is now in jail.
She accused social workers of failing to do proper checks on her treatment at different foster placements, including one where she was sent to buy drugs.
The abuse stopped when Lucy became old enough to move into her own home, and in 2015 she was approached by police officers who said that a review of records had sparked concern.
Lucy initially said there was nothing she wanted to report, but decided to come forward when she found out other victims had been identified.
“I hadn’t managed to deal with my trauma but in a way I had put it in a box in my head and not opened up about it,” she said. “I had managed to move on.”
Lucy said the process of recounting the horrific abuse she suffered to police was deeply distressing, and that her trauma was worsened by a three-year wait for the case to go to trial.
Lucy was told she could not have counselling ahead of the hearing in case it affected her evidence, despite being diagnosed with trauma and mental health issues resulting from the abuse.
“You have got to live with it – go through that trauma day in, day out,” she said. “As a victim opening up, I feel like you go through more than the defendant who actually abused you.”
The defendants were unexpectedly freed on bail, increasing her fears of retribution, and when they were jailed Lucy was stunned at the short length of their sentences.
She said multiple assaults she suffered were “bundled together” in charges, and that sentences for different crimes were run concurrently, meaning her abusers were given far lighter terms than she expected.
And Lucy suffered a further blow when she was refused government compensation because of a drink-driving conviction.
“For me it wasn’t about money, but the system owes me more than what my life can be now,” she said. “I’ll never get back my childhood.”
West Yorkshire Police said it had been notified of a possible civil claim over Lucy’s case but said her safety and welfare had “always been at the forefront of considerations”.
“Security arrangements were repeatedly made for her,” said Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Hankinson.
“Welfare support has been offered and all reports of criminal offences made by the victim were appropriately recorded and assessed, taking into account available evidence.
“Operation Tendersea itself is one of the biggest investigations into child sexual abuse ever mounted by West Yorkshire Police and, to date, has resulted in the sentencing of 34 men.”
Kirklees Council, which was responsible for Lucy’s care arrangements, said its knowledge of child sexual exploitation had “moved forward tremendously”.
A spokesperson said: “We now have a better understanding of the risks and issues and we can be confident that the progress we have made would lead to different outcomes today.
“At the same time, we absolutely acknowledge the long-term impact on victims and the great courage they have shown in giving evidence so that offenders are brought to justice.”
*Lucy is a pseudonym used to protect the victim’s anonymity