UK, -Mother tells how her daughter, 14, was lured into abusers’ clutches

Mother tells how her daughter, 14, was lured into abusers’ clutches
Lucy Bannerman

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2237941.ece

Jackie is fixed to the computer screen, scrolling through pictures and
profiles of her daughter’s 122 “friends�. There are three girls who,
like Mandy, 16, are white, young and blonde. The rest of the pictures
show young men, with nicknames such as Ginger and Naz. There are enough
photos of shiny cars to make a boy racer proud.

“Here’s a toast 2 us,� writes Mandy on the social networking website.
“For the men who have us, the losers who had us, and the lucky b*stards
who will meet us.�

This is now the only contact Jackie has with her daughter, who, two
years ago, became seduced by men who gave her presents and compliments,
in exchange for sexual favours among their extended network of brothers,
cousins and friends. She had just celebrated her 14th birthday.

Like other mothers in the North West area, Jackie believes the ethnicity
of her daughter’s abusers � predominantly Asian � makes the subject more
difficult to tackle.
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She said: “They are committing a crime; it doesn’t matter what colour or
religion they are. People are scared it will start a race riot but it is
this perception of racism that is putting up a barrier. It is so
frustrating. Why should it be swept under the carpet? This is destroying
people’s lives. They need prosecuting.�

It started with some new female friends � Asian girls whom Mandy got to
know. Within a year, she had accelerated through the pattern of truancy
and drug-taking into full-scale sexual exploitation.

“She began wearing low-cut tops, and horrible heavy make-up,� Jackie
recalled.

Then came the drugs. “She would come home from school, her eyes rolling,
pupils dilated.�

The socialising took place in the park, the railway station, the street
corner. Mandy, once a normal chatty schoolgirl, became a stranger whom
her mother would glimpse circling the local shopping centre, accompanied
by more than a dozen Asian boys aged from 14 into their twenties.

Then she began to disappear, at first for hours, then days and nights.
Finally, her mother would learn later, she would end up in certain
houses in predominantly Asian neighbourhoods.

“They call them slag dens,� said Jackie.

Presents, including jewellery, make-up and a string of new mobile
phones, were soon followed by bruises and threatening phone calls.
Jackie recalls how her daughter began wearing a dressing gown during the
day to cover any telltale marks of abuse.

After many late-night collections from the police station and countless
calls to social services, Jackie managed to intercept an explicit call
from one of the men. She pretended to be her daughter. It was only then
that she discovered the extent of the sexual abuse. “It made me sick.
When I told them who they were speaking to,� she said, her words slowing
in disbelief, “they just laughed.�

Mandy’s case is typical of the grooming patterns developing across the
country. Insecure about her weight and lacking in self-esteem, she was
particularly vulnerable, her mother believes, to the compliments of the
handsome young men, mistaking their attention for affection. On the
walls of the living room in a neat, red-brick terraced house, family
photographs show the teenager smiling with her sisters.

The self-harming scars lining her forearms are just about visible if you
know where to look.

Jackie said: “I tried to explain they were just using her. But these men
are so manipulative. They have these girls like puppets on a string.
They genuinely think these guys are in love with them.�

It has been more than a year since Mandy has been in foster care near
by. Her ties within the “grooming� network are stronger than ever.

“That girl,� says her mother, pointing to someone apparently even
younger than her daughter, “was groomed by Mandy.

“The girls all have the same look on their faces. They are blank, like
their souls are lost somewhere.�

With this exception of an occasional e-mail, Jackie has no contact with
her daughter. The family have had to move house, claiming intimidation
by members of the grooming network. The successful prosecution of
Hussain and Naveed, she says, “is a start, but it has come too late for
my daughter�.