Kiara had no way of escaping the abuse by gang members on her estate
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Kiara gives a horrifying account of repeated brutal sexual abuse by gang members in her home area.
They exerted considerable control over the neighbourhood, but her deprived home life meant that she had no chance of moving away.
Kiara lived with her mother, who had mental health problems. She explains that most people knew each other on the estate, and some of the girls she hung around with were a ‘bad influence’.
One day, when she was in her early teens, a girl she was scared of took her across the street to another estate where a teenage boy was waiting. The girl told Kiara to strip and conduct oral sex on the boy.
Kiara tried to refuse, but was hit until she complied. The teenage boy then attempted to have anal sex with both girls.
A few weeks later Kiara was drunk with a friend at the teenage boy’s house. When she was barely conscious, the boy had sex with her, without her consent. He then forced her to have sex with her friend’s brother.
She now knows this was rape but at the time did not realise this. However, she did know that she felt humiliated and degraded by the experience.
Throughout the rest of the time that Kiara lived on the estate there were many more occasions when she was raped, sexually assaulted and forced to perform sex acts on boys in gangs. She was once locked into a bathroom with a boy so he could rape her, as the others cheered outside. She remembers crying and begging on her knees to the boy for him to stop.
Sometimes the gang members stole from her, or made her hold drugs for them. She was also subjected to threats and verbal and physical abuse, and her mum was often taunted by them too. Kiara says she and her mum were vulnerable, and ‘an easy target for everyone’.
Kiara explains how the continuing sexual abuse, assaults and bullying affected her behaviour. The perpetrators were always in the area where she lived and some of them went to her school. As a result she started to play truant to try and avoid them. Instead she spent more time with friends, drinking and taking drugs.
The final incident of sexual abuse involved a group of older men who she met in a club when she was out with her friends. The men bought them drinks, and the evening ended with one of them forcing Kiara onto the floor in a house, strangling her and raping her.
One day at school, she broke down and told a friend about all the abuse that had happened to her. Her friend told staff at the school and the police were called.
At this point Kiara was scared she might die as when she was being questioned in an office, she could see other kids trying to look in and work out what was happening. She says ‘The rule was always you never snitched on anyone on the estate’.
Kiara was very shocked by her mother’s cold reaction when the police told her about the abuse of her daughter. It made Kiara feel she had no one looking out for her, but she has since discovered that her mum had also been abused.
As she feared, after talking to the police, Kiara was subjected to further threats and physical violence by local youths.
Her school and college attendance remained erratic, because she was afraid of encountering the people who abused her. Social services were involved, but no action was taken to relocate Kiara and her mum, or protect them.
Kiara asked her mum if they could leave the area, and when she refused, Kiara made the decision to move away. She still goes to visit her mum, but says that she feels unsafe going back to the estate and it always triggers traumatic memories for her.
The abuse had many lasting negative effects on her life. She failed in education and has no confidence. She has mental health problems and has self-harmed, abused alcohol, drugs and attempted suicide. She has been in violent relationships.
Kiara is having therapy, but feels let down that she and her mum did not receive any professional help when they needed it. She says that action should be taken to help victims and survivors who are living in areas where they are at risk.
Kiara also feels that in cases where parents may not have the capacity to protect their children, there should be some form of responsibility assessment.