Rotherham survivor hunts for missing file ‘crucial’ to trafficking prosecution

“Child sexual exploitation is like a lottery,” Elizabeth told me, as she has on many occasions that we’ve met and discussed her fight for justice.

“Once one person has your number, suddenly everyone’s got it. Your details get passed around and the phone was ringing constantly. Men were always around.”

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

But one particular incident remains prominently in her mind, in her continued emotional and psychological suffering from the trauma of the abuse.

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

Elizabeth suffers from a distorted memory due to her trauma response to the abuse, so some of her recollection is imprecise. And over the years of knowing her and covering her testimony, details of this particular incident have always stood out as being especially bleak.

She was abandoned in Bristol by the men. They drove away, leaving her stranded in a city she’d never visited, a child without a place to stay or anyone to support her.

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

That support worker, who has requested anonymity, told me how they scrambled to rescue her from the perils of abandonment in the southwest.

She first phoned Avon & Somerset police to report that Elizabeth needed to be returned to Rotherham, but they told her “we’re not a taxi service” and did not intervene.

Elizabeth eventually made her way to Bristol Temple Meads and took a train by herself back to Rotherham, where her support worker picked her up from the station and brought her back to her accommodation, a facility called Rush House.

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“I kept her on the phone all the way back to ensure she was safe and would make it. I was so worried for her safety, I needed to get her back to Rotherham,” her worker told me.

When she returned, Elizabeth told me that she was assisted by the workers at Rush House, who interviewed her for details about what happened during her trafficking ordeal.

“I told them everything. The number plate of the car, the nicknames of the men, 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 failed to progress the case. A report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found in 2022 that the force totally failed in its duties during the Rotherham atrocity.

Operation Liden found a failure to recognise children as victims, with police officers and staff viewing them as “consenting” to the abuse. The authorities were consistently unwilling to pursue investigations if the victim did not directly make a complaint because “the feeling was there would be insufficient evidence for a successful prosecution.”

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

Glimmers of hope appeared in 2014, when the National Crime Agency launched Operation Stovewood, its investigation into allegations of child abuse in the town 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 officers to identify the men who trafficked her. The investigators found them through their nicknames.

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

GB News has been told that Elizabeth was asked to come to Rush House for a meeting soon after she requested her file. She claimed that when she arrived, a council worker was waiting for her in the carpark, telling Elizabeth that they were attending to help her through the process.

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

Her support worker who rescued her from Bristol told me that Elizabeth’s file was “one of the most extensive” at the time, due to the nature of the abuse she was enduring 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 that it does not discuss personal details of vulnerable young adults who have been residents, especially anyone who is a survivor of child sexual exploitation.

They added that the period we were discussing was historic and prior to the current Rush House management team’s experience.

“However, I can confirm that we understand the policy in that period was to destroy personal records after a six-year period and this may have included the files you refer to in your email,” they added.

“In 2018, following the loss of the supported accommodation contract through a tendering process, all remaining files from 2018 and prior were handed over to the local authority.”

Though Elizabeth was unaware of this, in December of 2015, a whistleblower from Rush House allegedly went to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to express concerns about files being moved from Rush House to council facilities.

This broadcaster has seen an email sent by a senior council representative to that whistleblower in January 2016 confirming that an external investigator would be appointed to assess the concerns they had raised.

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

RMBC told GB News that despite the email giving confirmation that an external investigation would be launched, it had no record of any investigation.

The council also said it was unable to access old emails because they are automatically deleted when an employee leaves the organisation. The assistant director who sent the email “confirming” the investigation has since left the council.

Years later, the NCA told Elizabeth that they would be charging two men over the trafficking ordeal. But when the case reached court, a judge threw out the case due to a lack of evidence.

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

“I needed that file because it had proof of everything that happened to me. It showed that I was taken from my accommodation, that I had been exploited by those men, and that they abandoned me in Bristol. They have escaped justice because that paperwork went missing.”

Elizabeth told me that she does not know why her files have disappeared.

“Someone is trying to hide something and keep information from the public, but that is also keeping justice from me.”

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

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

“God knows how many men are still walking free, but I won’t stop fighting untilI get to the bottom of this case. I know many other survivors are suffering in silence as well.”

Rachael Wilson, the CEO of Rush House, told GB News: “We have at all times provided information freely on request to authorised investigating bodies including the police, NCA and adult/child safeguarding and have, and will at all times, cooperate openly fully and with complete transparency where criminal activity is suspected or the safety of young adults is or has been threatened.”

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

“The safeguarding of the young adults who use Rush House is, and always will be, our top priority.”