One victims, 16-year-old Lucy Lowe, was killed by her abuser in a house fire. She gave birth to his child when she was just 14
A pair of whistleblowers who raised fears over the Telford child sex abuse scandal which affected up to 1,000 girls were both punished and silenced, it emerged today.
The brutal sex gang targeted the innocent girls over a 40-year period in what may be Britain’s ‘worst ever’ child abuse scandal.
Girls in the town of Telford in Shropshire were drugged, beaten and raped at the hands of the violent groom gang which was active since the 1980s.
Three of them were murdered and two others died following incidents linked to the sickening scandal.
And it has now been revealed that two whitstleblowers who wanted to raise their concerns about the crimes were hushed and one woman even lost her job.
According to the Mirror, police chaplain Keith Osmund-Smith was suspended after he passed papers to the newspaper and a report commissioned by the council revealed social workers knew of the sex crimes before the turn of the millennium.
Meanwhile, a woman who was hired by sex abuse charity Axis Counselling, based in Shrewsbury, was forced to leave her role after she tried to speak up.
The newspaper reports that officials feared funding would be cut if she continued to criticise the police and council by suggesting they had not done enough and was forced out of the organisation.
Telford’s Conservative MP, Lucy Allan, has previously called for a Rotherham-style inquiry into the allegations and called the latest reports ‘extremely serious and shocking’.
Police chaplain Keith Osmund-Smith (pictured) was suspended after he passed papers to the newspaper
Vicky Round was just 20 when she died of a suspected overdose. She had been forced into crack cocaine and heroin addiction by her abusers
Becky Watson suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11
‘There must now be an independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford so that our community can have absolute confidence in the authorities,’ she told the paper.
Lucy Lowe, 16, died alongside her mother and sister after the man who had been abusing her, 26-year-old Azhar Ali Mehmood, set fire to their house.
The taxi-driver first targeted Lucy in 1997. She gave birth to his child when she was just 14.
Mehmood was jailed for murdering Lucy, her mother Eileen and her sister Sarah, 17.
However, he was never arrested or charged with any sex abuse crimes over his involvement with the young girl.
Another victim, who was drugged and gang raped by nine men two years later, said that Lucy’s death was used as a warning to other girls who might speak out.
The schoolgirl, who remains anonymous, said she was driven to try to kill herself.
She told the Sunday Mirror: ‘I was scared my family would die like Lucy’s. I thought they’d only be safe if I killed myself.’
In 2002 another schoolgirl was killed in an unexplained car accident in Telford.
The burned out remains of the Lowe’s family home, where Lucy, Eileen and Sarah Lowe died in a fire started by Lucy’s abuser, 26-year-old Azhar Ali Mehmood
Mubarek Ali, 34, (left) and his brother Ahdel Ali, 27, (right) from Telford were both jailed year after sexually abusing young girls in a child sex abuse ring
Becky Watson, 13, was killed after a car she was in crashed. At the time the incident was reported as a ‘prank’.
However, it was revealed she had suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11.
In tragic diary entries she told of how she was forced to ‘sleep around’.
Her mother, Torron Watson, went to the police on a number of occasion and even handed them a list of suspects. But nothing was done.
She said: ‘Girls like Becky were treated like criminals. I was crying out for help but it felt like I had nowhere to turn. If Becky’s abuse had been properly investigated by the authorities more girls could have been saved from going through this hell.’
Vicky Round, a friend of Becky’s, was abused by the same gang.
They forced her into a crack cocaine addiction aged 12. By the age of 14 she was taking heroine regularly.
She died aged 20 after a suspected drug overdose.
In Rotherham around 1,400 girls, many of them under-age, were sexually abused over a 16-year period at the hands of men from the town’s Pakistani community.
An estimate of the number of victims in Telford was calculated with the help of Professor Liz Kelly, from the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University, who reviewed the Mirror’s figures.
Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child abuse solicitor, said: ‘These children were treated as sexual commodities by men who inflicted despicable acts of abuse. The survivors deserve an inquiry.
‘They need to know how abuse took place for so long and why so many perpetrators have never been brought to justice.’
Seven men were jailed in 2013 following Operation Chalice, a police inquiry into child prostitution in the Telford area.
Mubarek Ali, 34, sold teenage girls, some as young as 13, for sex above an Indian restaurant in Telford, Shropshire, after grooming them.
His brother Ahdel Ali, 27, was handed a 26-year sentence after the pair sexually abused, trafficked, prostituted or tried to prostitute four teenagers.
Telford’s Conservative MP, Lucy Allan (pictured), has called for a Rotherham-style inquiry
Mubarek Ali, 34, sold teenage girls for sex above an Indian restaurant in Telford after grooming them. He was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court (pictured)
The paper says authorities were warned of the abuse a decade before Operation Chalice.
One victim, who was targeted by paedophiles and forced to sleep with dozens of men, said: ‘The police have betrayed the children of this town for a second time.
‘I dread to think how many victims there have been over the years – it wouldn’t surprise me if the offending was on the same scale as Rotherham.
‘It has been going on for at least two decades. When will it stop?’
West Mercia Police have admitted errors were made in the way detailed reports had from street pastors on night patrol had been handled by police.
Some of the street pastors had witnessed teenagers being sold drugs at under-age parties and gangs of men grooming intoxicated children.
Telford (pictured) has a population of 155,000 and is about 13 miles east of Shrewsbury
Arshid Hussain (in a wheelchair, being pushed by a relative) arriving at his trial at Crown Court. Hussain, one of the ringleaders of the Rotherham abuse scandal, was jailed for 35 years in 2016
‘It has been going on for at least two decades. When will it stop?’
A spokesperson for Telford and Wrekin Council told the paper: ‘Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a vile, evil crime. It’s an issue right across the UK and has been for a long time.
‘Telford will be covered by the national CSE review. We welcome this. All agencies continue to work very closely together and this remains our top priority.’
Police said 100 girls could have become victims in Telford between 2007 and 2009.
Supt Tom Harding, of West Mercia Police, said communication had improved dramatically in recent years.
He added: ‘Incidents identified by pastors point to potential signs of child sexual exploitation and we use this as intelligence to target individuals who may need to be investigated.’