Girls locked in cages, raped by 700 men: UK MP shares Pak grooming gang testimonies

British MP Rupert Lowe has reignited debate over the UK's 'grooming gangs' scandal after an emotional speech in Parliament in which he read testimonies of survivors. He told Parliament that the world should hear what was said during the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings, which he said should never have needed to happen. He urged MPs to listen to the testimonies of these brave survivors and to finally act.

In his remarks, Lowe read out harrowing accounts of systematic sexual abuse, violence, intimidation, racial targeting and alleged police misconduct, alongside claims that public authorities, healthcare workers and children's home staff repeatedly failed to protect vulnerable children.

The testimonies were gathered during an independent inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation. According to material linked to that effort, a private investigation led by him last year identified "gang-based child sexual exploitation" in at least 85 areas across the UK. A statement issued by Lowe in August last year said "rape gangs", predominantly comprising men of Pakistani heritage, had been active for decades and were far more widespread than thought

"Patterns of predominantly Pakistani males, combined with gross negligence from public bodies, are identifiable," it added.

HARROWING ACCOUNTS OF ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION

Among the accounts Lowe cited was one in which a survivor said: "He took his pants down, penetrated me, had sex with me. He then stopped before ejaculation. He picked up a 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 read out by Lowe said: "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 my 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."

Lowe also cited testimonies alleging that race and religion were used by some perpetrators to demean, isolate and exert control over victims.

One survivor told during inquiry hearings: "Comments were constantly made suggesting that white girls, the Christian girls, were viewed as having fewer morals or lower values, 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 testimony described how the victim's Christian faith was allegedly mocked during the abuse. "The main clash that I kind of had with the religion side of it was I grew up as a Christian. I would wear my cross because it was something really special to me. It was just used as a way to break me down. They said, 'Where is your God now? Has your God forsaken you?'"

POLICE ACCUSED IN SURVIVOR ACCOUNTS

The British MP also quoted a woman who alleged that some of her attackers were police officers. "Over the course of the abuse I was raped by multiple police officers in different parts of the country," the testimony stated.

Other accounts described the scale of abuse and what survivors said were failures by institutions to intervene. One testimony said: "It started when I was 13. I was raped by probably about six or seven hundred different men over three years."

Lowe also quoted a survivor who said: "I was bleeding from both my vagina and my 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 years old."

In another testimony, a survivor said: "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."

Lowe said the account was among the most disturbing testimonies presented during the inquiry.

He also cited testimony from a woman who alleged that she witnessed 15-20 women being held in cages and described being subjected to extreme abuse.

"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," said another survivor.

Lowe concluded the series of testimonies with a survivor's appeal for action. "I just wanted it to stop and not happen to any other children and for people to actually act, to do something and stop being so scared. I could continue for hours and hours," the testimony said.

The UK MP then urged lawmakers to move beyond debate and take concrete action. "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. It will change Britain for good," Lowe said.

WHAT ARE THE UK'S GROOMING GANGS?

In the UK, the term 'grooming gangs' is commonly used to describe cases in which vulnerable children and teenagers were manipulated, trafficked, intimidated, drugged or abused by multiple offenders over long periods. The phrase became known after investigations in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham uncovered organised child sexual exploitation and major failures by police, councils and social services to protect victims. The ongoing UK statutory inquiry says it is examining "the sexual abuse and exploitation of children by grooming gangs across England and Wales".

Background provided in the case history says reports of girls being groomed by gangs of men, largely of Pakistani heritage, first drew political attention in 2002, when then Labour MP Ann Cryer warned that it was happening in her West Yorkshire constituency of Keighley. In 2010, five men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12 to 16 in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. A later investigation by The Times exposed both the scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and a pattern of abuse by organised networks of predominantly British-Pakistani men. In the years that followed, gangs were jailed in more than a dozen towns, including Rochdale, Oldham, Telford, Bristol, Oxford, Huddersfield, Halifax and Banbury.

The term 'grooming gangs' became attached to cases in which girls aged 11 to 16, many of them white and from troubled backgrounds, were targeted in public, given attention, alcohol or drugs, and then deceived or forced into sex before being passed on to other men.

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