'I JUST FROZE'
Rochdale ‘Three Girls’ sex grooming victim tells of chilling moment she bumped into one of her attackers just a few weeks ago
A VICTIM of the Rochdale child sex ring has revealed what it's like to come face to face with her attacker after he was released from jail.
The woman, who spoke out under the pseudonym Lily, said she "just froze" after bumping into one of the men in her hometown a few weeks ago.
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Speaking to Good Morning Britain, the young woman said she had been groomed from the age of 11.
But she said she struggled to heal over the trauma as she still saw her abusers.
Speaking publicly for the first time, she said: "I actually bumped into one (of the abusers) in my hometown a few weeks ago.
"I just, I just froze."
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She added: "I was like - there's nothing I can do, I've brought it to court, he was sentenced and now he's out."
She bravely shared her story on Good Morning Britain after the harrowing Three Girls drama about the sex trafficking and grooming was aired on BBC.
Revealing that she had at first been targeted by the abusers in the child sex ring when she was 11, the victim said she had been picked up while wandering the streets, unhappy in her foster home.
She said: "I was just kind of on my own.
"She (the foster parent) took a disliking to me and I tried to be out of the house as much as possible, walking the streets and I started getting picked up."
She said that the men at first "build the trust", taking her home and buying her alcohol and cigarettes.
The woman, who was facing away from the camera during the TV interview, said: "I genuinely thought I was in a relationship".
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But she said she realised after she was raped at 15-years-old, and after speaking to her sexual health worker, that the relationship wasn't right.
She said: "She (the sexual health worker) said back to me – you need to think of what you have just described to me, (it's) not right.
"That’s the first time I went and reported it."
When questioned by hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shepherd, the young woman said she had felt she wasn't taken seriously by authorities.
I genuinely thought I was in a relationship
'Lily'
She said: "I just felt like I was ignored.
"I had been told that this thing that had happened to me was really, really horrific but when I tried to report it, nothing happened.
"That made me go back to thinking there was nothing wrong what what was going on.
"If something was wrong, and it was really bad, then the police would have done something."
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In total, police identified and interviewed 47 young girls who were potential victims of the gang in 2012.
The Times first revealed the issue of Asian sex gangs targeting girls after an investigation in Rotherham.
It led to an inquiry which found that at least 1,400 children had been exploited in that town.
A report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board painted a picture of girls as young as 10 being targeted for sexual abuse.
The girls were mainly white British and were targeted by the sex gang, who were predominately British Pakistani.
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