Westminster Hall debate: Child Sexual Offender Data (e-petition 730605)

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain. I thank the 260,974 British men and women who signed the petition to make this debate possible, and I welcome the brave survivors who are sitting behind us in the Chamber. This debate is about them; as the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Brash) quite rightly said, it is not about politics.

I want the world to hear what we heard during the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings —an inquiry that should never have needed to happen. I sincerely urge this Parliament to listen to the testimonies from these brave survivors and to finally act.

The first testimony:

“He took his pants down, penetrated me, had sex with me. And then he stopped before ejaculation. He picked up the bottle of Jack Daniels, which was now empty, and he forced it up inside me. He broke the glass while he was there. At that point, I was about 12, nearly 13.”

Another testimony:

“I was held down by the men as they each took turns to orally and vaginally rape me, taking it in turns to pin down my arms and legs. When the assault ended, the men hit me repeatedly, threatened to find me, kill me and harm my loved ones if I ever told anybody what had happened.”

Another:

“Comments were constantly made suggesting that ‘white girls’ and Christian girls were viewed as having fewer morals or lower value, whereas ‘Muslim girls’ were described by some of the men as having dignity and higher moral standing. These comparisons were used to justify the way I was treated and to further humiliate and control me.”

Another:

“She was a white woman herself, who I imagine may have been groomed and has obviously now married into the family, shouting obscenities at us. Throughout the whole sentencing, she was constantly saying, ‘Fucking liars, lying white bitches’. She said to me that God will be the witness for what happens to me.”

Another:

“Race did play a part and motivated the selection or demographic of the victims. Throughout my exploitation, the other girls I encountered or who were abused alongside me were almost exclusively white.”

Another:

“She had a baby by him, and his dad was an Imam. His dad knew. And he got his son married and said that he wasn’t allowed to see the child. They look after their own community.”

Another:

“Over the course of the abuse, I was raped by multiple police officers in different parts of the country.”

Another:

“He put a cigarette out on the baby’s face.”

Another:

“It started when I was 13. I was raped by probably about six or seven hundred different men over the three years.”

Another:

“They would toot the horn of the car and then a child would be taken to the front door by a staff member of the children’s home.”

Another:

“I was bleeding from both my vagina and back passage and was so swollen I could not sit down. I told hospital staff my drink had been spiked and I did not know what had happened because I was too afraid to tell the truth. They did not ask any questions. They gave me tablets and discharged me. I was 15.”

Another:

“Things would escalate around Eid and holidays. Parties got bigger, got worse, got more violent. More people involved, more girls involved. The parties were just bigger.”

Another:

“The main clash that I kind of had with the religion side of it was, I grew up a Christian. I would wear my cross because it was something really, really special to me. It was just used as a way to break me down. They said, ‘Where is your God now? Why has your God forsaken you?’”

Another:

“It was all of the white girls in every home that I went to. I remember a man opening the back of a van and I saw maybe 15, 20 girls locked in dog cages.”

Another:

“Dogs were brought in and I couldn’t move at all. I had nowhere to move. I think what was the scariest thing was not having any concept of it. There were men around me. Not horrified, not disgusted, not helping, but filming and laughing. Making bets on whether the dog could actually rape me or not. And yes, I was raped by a dog. The man just held my face, stared me down straight in the eyes, and he wanted to see me break, and he did.”

Another:

“I just want it to stop and not happen to any other children and for people to actually act and do something and stop being so scared.”

I could continue for hours and hours. All of us in this building have a responsibility to finally act—not to talk, but to act. Our rape gang inquiry report will be released in the coming days, and it will change Britain for good.

The hon. Member has made a very good point. We have been in touch with the Government and Baroness Longfield and have said that we will help them, but so far nobody has actually made contact with me.