Because this was happening outside the house, there was nothing I could do. If a girl is over 13, she has to be the complainant in a case of sexual assault. Every time she disappeared, I thought I'd never see her alive again. I couldn't eat, sleep or function properly, and I could see no way back. Every minute of every day became a nightmare. I felt as if my daughter was sliding away from me and I'd never be able to get her back. People ask me why I use the word "grooming" rather than referring to them as paedophiles, but most of these men haven't been convicted. The men flattered them into believing they loved them as part of a process of grooming them to have sex with lots of different men, some in their 30s and 40s. Money didn't seem to be changing hands, but the girls were getting drink and drugs and mobile phones. "Those boys are my boyfriends."Īs far as she was concerned, she was doing what she wanted to do and I was hindering her. I was horrified when he said, "Yes, all the prostitutes hang out by the bowling green."
Once when she disappeared, I went through the park looking for her and asked a teenage boy if he'd seen her. Sometimes she would say she was going to have an early night, then she'd turn on the shower and climb out the bathroom window. When she started disappearing overnight, I trawled the streets looking for her. Then she started missing certain lessons, sometimes whole days. Next my older daughter spotted her hanging about in the local park with some lads from school who introduced the girls they befriended to older boys and men. The school was a stone's throw away, but friends began calling for her as early as 7.30am.
But after a couple of months things began to change.
She had always got on well with other children and worked hard. I n September 2000 my daughter was nearly 13 and had just started secondary school.
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