Rotherham grooming gang victim opens up on moment she told son she had been raped
Sammy Woodhouse was a victim of the notorious Rotherham child grooming gang
PA
A victim of the notorious Rotherham child grooming gang has shared the moment she told her son that she was raped and his father was the violent ringleader.
Sammy Woodhouse was one of eighteen girls who called rapist Arshid Hussain her boyfriend - not realising the extent of the abuse she had been through.
Woodhouse fell pregnant aged 15 but explained that she did not come to terms with the abuse until her son reached the age of 12.
In 2016, Hussain was jailed for 35 years for 23 offences against nine girls, after she took her story to a national newspaper.
Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after he was exposed as the gang's ringleader
PA
“When my son was born, I just loved him straight away," she told The Sun.
“I didn't care how he was born, who his dad was and I didn't even recognise I'd been abused anyway.
“But when he got to about 12 years old and I started to come to terms with the fact that I was abused, I was panicking about what do I tell my son?
“He’s now going to find out that his mum's been abused, he's going to find that his dad was the person that committed it.”
Also jailed were 18 other members of the gang, including two of Hussain's brothers and a subsequent report found 1,400 children had been abused by gangs in the city between 1997 and 2013, while police and social services turned a blind eye.
Woodhouse, who is now a campaigner against child abuse, believes children of rape survivors are not being given enough support.
“I didn't know what to tell him. How do I tell him?" she added.
“He had no-one to talk to. We weren't in contact with anyone that has been through this.
“He and I just felt very alone in things. And I remember him saying to me, ‘We're the only family going through this’.
“I said, ‘Well, actually, we're not but we’re the ones that are public, you've got no idea how many people will have a similar story to us’.”
A victim of the grooming gangs scandal spoke with GB News
GB News
Following years of historic sex crimes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces new policies demanded by GB News Investigates in its debut documentary.
GB News exposed how grooming gangs were continuing to operate with a lack of action taken to crack down on the exploitation of young girls.
Earlier this month, Downing Street announced the formation of a new Grooming Gangs Taskforce, which will involve specialist officers being “parachuted in to assist police forces with live child sexual exploitation and grooming investigations to bring more of these despicable criminals to justice.”
The new force will be led by the police and supported by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Elizabeth, a survivor of child sexual exploitation from Rotherham, told GB News: “I truly hope this is the moment we have all been waiting for as survivors and campaigners.
"The national grooming gangs scandal has dragged on for decades without major action, but these plans show huge potential.
"The NCA secured the conviction of my abuser in 2018 and I hope the government's new taskforce will help secure justice for other victims across the country, not just in Rotherham.”