Rotherham survivor searches for missing file ‘crucial’ for human trafficking prosecution

“Child sexual exploitation is like a lottery,” Elizabeth told me, as she has experienced before and discussed her fight for justice.

“If one person has your number, suddenly everyone has it. Your details are being passed on and the phone kept ringing. Men were always there.”

Much of her abuse took place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, at the height of the city’s child sexual exploitation scandal. She is one of at least 1,500 children who were systematically groomed and exploited by predominantly Pakistani gangs, who operated for decades without police or municipal prosecution.

But one specific incident remains prominent in her mind, in her ongoing emotional and psychological suffering from the trauma of the abuse.

She was taken from Rotherham to Bristol by two men and driven across the country for six hours by a couple involved in her exploitation. I’m told she was used as a commodity in a drug deal between two gangs, and was ‘offered’ as part of the exchange.

Elizabeth suffers from distorted memory due to her trauma response to the abuse, so some of her memories are inaccurate. And over the years that I have known her and covered her testimony, the details of this particular incident have always appeared particularly bleak.

She was left behind by the men in Bristol. They drove away, leaving her in a town she had never visited, a child with no shelter or anyone to support her.

Elizabeth was able to contact her support worker at Risky Business, a council-funded charity that supported children experiencing sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

That counselor, who requested anonymity, told me how they struggled to save her from the dangers of abandonment in the Southwest.

She first called Avon & Somerset Police to report that Elizabeth needed to be taken back to Rotherham, but they told her “we are not a taxi service” and did not intervene.

Elizabeth eventually made her way to Bristol Temple Meads and took the train back to Rotherham on her own, where her support worker collected her from the station and returned her to her accommodation, a facility called Rush House.

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“I kept her on the phone all the way back to make sure she was safe and would make it. I was so concerned about her safety that I had to take her back to Rotherham,” her worker told me.

When she returned, Elizabeth told me she was assisted by Rush House staff, who interviewed her for details about what happened during her human trafficking trial.

“I told them everything. The license plate of the car, the men’s nicknames, where they picked me up and where we went. They had all the details about the incident and what happened.”

GB News understands that Rush House reported the incident to South Yorkshire Police, who have been unable to pursue the matter further. A 2022 report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found that the force failed completely in its duties during the Rotherham atrocity.

Operation Liden found that children were not recognized as victims, with police officers and staff viewing them as “consenting” to the abuse. Authorities were consistently unwilling to investigate if the victim did not make a complaint directly, because ‘it was felt that there would be insufficient evidence for a successful prosecution’.

Elizabeth was a victim of this police malpractice. The case did not progress and her slide into further exploitation continued.

A glimmer of hope appeared in 2014, when the National Crime Agency launched Operation Stovewood, the investigation into allegations of child abuse in the city between 1997 and 2013, the same period assessed by the Jay Report that exposed the extent of the scandal.

Elizabeth was identified as a survivor of exploitation during this period and worked with NCA agents to identify the men who trafficked her. The researchers found them through their nicknames.

But while the NCA built their case, Elizabeth conducted her own investigation. After the Jay Report exposed the extent of state failure in 2014, Elizabeth told me she asked Rush House for a copy of her file. She wanted to gather her own evidence so that she was ready to right the wrongs caused by the failure of the police and the municipality at the time.

GB News has learned that Elizabeth was asked to come to Rush House for a meeting shortly after she applied for her file. She claimed that when she arrived, a city employee was waiting for her in the parking lot and told Elizabeth they were there to help her through the process.

They then had a meeting in the building and it is alleged that some basic administrative files relating to her period at Rush House were shown, but more explicit details of her sexual exploitation were all missing.

Her counselor who rescued her from Bristol told me that Elizabeth’s case was “one of the most extensive” at the time, due to the nature of the abuse she suffered in the mid-2000s. But none of the files were there. And no one could explain to her where it was.

Rush House told GB News it does not discuss personal information of vulnerable young adults who have lived there, especially those who have survived child sexual exploitation.

They added that the period we discussed was historical and prior to the experience of the current Rush House management team.

“I can confirm, however, that we understand that the policy at that time was to destroy personal data after a period of six years and this may have included the files you refer to in your email,” she added.

“In 2018, following the loss of the supported housing contract due to a tender process, all remaining files from 2018 and earlier were transferred to the local authority.”

Although Elizabeth was unaware of this, a Rush House whistleblower is said to have gone to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in December 2015 to raise concerns about the movement of files from Rush House to council facilities.

This broadcaster has seen an email sent by a Supreme Court representative to that whistleblower in January 2016, confirming that an external investigator would be appointed to review the concerns they raised.

They added: “I can’t say much more at this stage and I’m sure someone will be in touch once the investigation gets underway.” GB News understands no one from the council made contact after this email was sent.

RMBC told GB News that despite the email confirming an external investigation would be launched, there was no record of any investigation.

The municipality also says it does not have access to old emails, because they are automatically deleted when an employee leaves the organization. The deputy director who sent the email “confirming” the investigation has since left the council.

Years later, the NCA told Elizabeth they would charge two men with human trafficking. But when the case went to trial, a judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence.

Elizabeth believes her Rush House file would have been crucial to a successful prosecution.

“I needed that file because it contained evidence of everything that had happened to me. It showed that I had been taken from my accommodation, that I had been exploited by those men and that they left me in Bristol. They escaped justice because that paperwork disappeared.”

Elizabeth told me she doesn’t know why her files disappeared.

“Someone is trying to hide something and withhold information from the public, but that also holds up justice for me.”

She has vowed to keep fighting to ensure her story is heard and more perpetrators are brought to justice.

The National Crime Agency has identified more than 1,100 victims from its investigation into the Rotherham abuse scandal. Only 38 people have been convicted.

‘God knows how many men are still at large, but I won’t stop fighting until I get to the bottom of this case. I know many other survivors are also suffering in silence.”

Rachael Wilson, the chief executive of Rush House, told GB News: “We have at all times freely provided information to relevant investigative authorities, including the police, the NCA and Adult and Child Protection, upon request, and have at all times openly and fully worked together. and with full transparency when criminal activity is suspected or the safety of young adults is or has been threatened.”

She added: “This would also have been the case if a young person had visited Rush House to request information. If relevant information had been available at the time of the alleged visit, it would have been provided upon request at the time.

“Protecting the young adults who use Rush House is and will remain our top priority.”