An investigation by the Sunday Mirror has blown the lid off four decades of child sex abuse, during which children as young as 11 were raped, beaten, or sold for sex at the hands of perverts living in the Shropshire community. Three children were murdered and two others died in tragedies linked to the Telford abuse rings.
Despite the horrors of high-profile sex rings in Rochdale and Rotherham gaining national attention, authorities in Telford repeatedly failed to address the pedophile rings rife within the their own community. In one case, a mother took a list of people she believed to be abusing her daughter to the authorities, only for her complaints to fall on deaf ears, it has been reported.
Telford MP Lucy Allan has called for a public inquiry, in line with the response to similar revelations in Rotherham. She also said what had been uncovered in her constituency was “extremely serious and shocking.” She added: “There must now be an independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford so that our community can have absolute confidence in the authorities.”
Specialist child-abuse solicitor Dino Nocivelli of Bolt Burdon Kemp said that the survivors of Telford’s rampant abuse rings deserve an inquiry. “These children were treated as sexual commodities by men who inflicted despicable acts of abuse,” he said. “They need to know how abuse took place for so long and why so many perpetrators have never been brought to justice.”
