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(Mirror) Teenage girls raped in the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal gave birth to more than 100 babies.
Scores more children as young as 13 miscarried or were forced to have abortions after attacks by Asian gangs on 1,400 girls.
One victim, who got pregnant TWICE to the same attacker, said: “I was groomed and abused, but the police took no action.”
The vulnerable youngster had an abortion at just 14 when her abuser threatened to have her killed if she gave birth to his baby.
Then he made her pregnant again just six months later – and allowed her to keep her child, but only if she became a Muslim.
Now a mother in her 30s, she told the Sunday Mirror how she was also TWICE failed by police who refused to investigate the attacks on her.
The woman, who we are calling Jane to protect her identity, said: “I know now I was groomed and abused, but back then, I was confused. Now I want to tell my story to help other girls like me. There are so many of us suffering in silence.”
Jane is just one of more than 100 victims who gave birth to their rapists’ babies as 1,400 girls were groomed, abused and raped in the South Yorkshire town from 1997 to 2013.
Some babies were kept by their young mothers while many were forcibly adopted and are now themselves in the care system.
The heartbreaking legacy of the scandal that has left a new generation of children’s lives blighted for ever is revealed deep in the shock independent report into Rotherham published last week.
It stated: “Children had pregnancies, miscarriages and terminations. It is hard to describe what these victims suffered.”
One lawyer representing two victims made pregnant said: “They and their children are permanently damaged.”
Jane told us how she was preyed on while a schoolgirl living with her parents in the South Yorkshire town. Her abuser, in his mid-20s, was cruising in his car looking for potential victims when he spotted the schoolgirl walking in the street alone.
She said: “He chatted me up and I suppose I was flattered. He gave me money and bought me food. He made it feel like we were girlfriend and boyfriend. It got very intense very quickly. My bedroom at home was on the back of the house above a large porch.
“He would climb onto the roof of the porch and sneak through my window. He had sex with me while my mum and dad were asleep in the next room.”
She said: “I found out I was pregnant at school. I took a test in the toilets. My mum cried, saying: ‘My baby can’t raise a baby!’ They wanted me to have an abortion but I wanted to keep it. I thought I was in love.”
When she broke the news to her abuser he told her to get rid of the baby or be murdered. Jane said: “He told me they would do a DNA test and he would be jailed. He said his friends would find me and kill me.”
Jane’s terrified parents went to the police and begged social services for help. But no action was taken.
She said: “I had the abortion and I was put in care to keep us apart. He would drive up and down outside my home. It was like he was stalking me.”
But when Jane was sent to live with foster parents the monster found her and six months later she was pregnant again at 15.
This time her abuser let her keep the child – but told her she would have to become a Muslim. Jane said: “I had to eat what he did, no bacon, and he talked to me about his religion for hours. I remember telling my mum and her sobbing. We all fell out but she and my dad came round and I moved back home a month before my baby girl was born.”
Meanwhile, her abuser, who was prone to jealous rages, ended up in jail for attacking another man. There was no contact between them for two years – then he got in touch with Jane out of the blue asking to see his daughter.
Jane said: “I agreed, but then he started threatening me, saying, ‘I’m going to run you out of town. You little ****ing bitch. I’ll have you shot!”
Jane went on to have a third child by another man and said she only realised she had been groomed two years ago when a social worker explained to her that she had been a victim.
“I found out that I was not the only girl he had abused,” she said. “I threw myself in front of a bus. My social worker took me to the police and I told them everything.” But she was failed again.
Jane said: “The officers told me they didn’t know what he could be charged with. I asked if they could keep me safe
and they said they couldn’t watch me 24 hours a day.”
“They should have taken me out of the area, away from him, right from the start.”
Her heart-rending story is reflected in the report into the Rotherham scandal, written by Professor Alexis Jay. It reveals many other victims conceived during rapes.
Although the report does not give a precise number, the Sunday Mirror understands the figure to be more than 100. Prof Jay wrote: “Some had children removed under care orders and suffered further trauma when contact with their child was terminated.
“However, there were other cases where vulnerable and sometimes very young mothers were able, with long-term support, to recover and successfully care for their children.” Giving a damning verdict on the impact of the abuse, Prof Jay wrote: “Many repeatedly self-harmed and some became suicidal. They suffered family breakdown.
“Several years after they were abused, a disproportionate number were victims of domestic violence, developed drug and alcohol addiction and had parenting difficulties with their own children, resulting in interventions.”
Lawyer David Greenwood is representing 15 victims. Two were made pregnant by their abusers. He said: “Their lives are permanently blighted. Some are mothers to children who they still believe were conceived in a loving relationship when the reality is they were groomed and raped.”
Child sex abuse expert Christine Tuck, of the charity Survivors of Abuse, said: “The victims have given birth to victims. There are no adequate words to describe the trauma those girls are enduring. The men who did this are animals.”
Today it emerged Rotherham’s police chief during the height of the scandal, Mike Hedges, ignored two letters he was sent 10 years ago pleading with him to do something.
One, from a Home Office researcher, told him his officers were not doing enough to “protect children at risk and target their abusers”. Another was a plea for help from the desperate parents of a 13-year-old girl who had been gang raped.
Tonight, the retired officer insisted: “I cannot claim that (the letters) never arrived in my office but I have no recall of it. If something like that had been brought to my attention I would have done something about it.”
