Emily Vaughn was subjected to horrific abuse by multiple rape gangs and endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of numerous perpetrators.
Between the ages of 14 and 20, she was raped, tortured, and mistreated by over 1,500 men, the majority of whom were of Pakistani descent. None of these individuals have faced arrest or punishment for their heinous acts.
Emily is calling for a national inquiry into the gangs that operated in practically every large town and city across the UK Credit: Alamy
Now, Emily is advocating for a national investigation into the gangs that operated in nearly every major town and city across the UK.
She was trafficked from her home in Wales to various locations, including Telford in Shropshire, where she was interviewed for the 2018 inquiry into the abuse in that area.
The inquiry revealed that the crimes had been ignored by the authorities for decades, with over 1,000 girls estimated to have been abused.
At 35, Emily feels that her testimony was neither properly heard nor given the weight it deserved by the researchers.
She says: “Some might be quick to label those calling for an inquiry into grooming gangs as aligning with the Far Right. That’s ignoring the victims. It’s essential to focus on the issue at hand.
“I was a victim of trafficking, but my interviews with the researchers were rushed and I don’t think I was even seen by a social worker. All I got was six sessions of NHS counselling.
“I don’t get access to a safe house if I need one because it’s the local authority’s duty to help me — the same local authority that failed me. The whole system is a mess and needs an urgent review.”
Emily had a joyful and carefree childhood, surrounded by the love of her parents in rural Wales.
However, after experiencing bullying at secondary school, she became vulnerable and was manipulated into drug-dealing by a neighbor.
By the age of 12, Emily had been expelled from school and arrested after defending herself during an assault by a rival drug dealer.
At 14, she began spending her time at the local kebab shop.
Emily says: “It was such a novelty — kids used to go there and just hang out. The kebab houses were full of young people.”
It was also the place where she endured repeated abuse and exploitation at the hands of several perpetrators.
“I didn’t know what it was — it never had a name,” she says.
The first of her many experiences of gang rape happened when she was 14 and a friend took her to meet some boys who worked at the local Indian takeaway.
“We went down the promenade, and got talking to a lad, who took us to meet an older Pakistani man sitting in a car.”
Due to the freezing weather, Emily agreed to get into the car.
“All of a sudden, other Pakistani men squashed in the back seat, and I was trapped,” she adds.
“I was terrified because so many hands were pulling at my trousers and underneath my clothes, and the car was moving very fast.”
After managing to escape, she ran towards a building, only to find herself cornered once again. The men pursued her, forced her to the ground, and assaulted her repeatedly.
Afterward, bleeding, in pain, and crying, she was informed: “Just get your clothes on and shut up crying, you whitey slag.”
She recalls: “Their tactics are to break you down, to take all your self-worth and confidence, so it feels like it’s all your fault.
"Telling me I was a white slag, a piece of dirt — you start to believe it.”
Afterward, Emily observed a sizable bite mark above her chest and experienced a sharp, burning pain in her abdomen and between her thighs.
She recalls: “I started doing more and more drugs and alcohol, which was easy because the men would give them to me in return for sex.”
They also threatened her with knives, warning that she would face consequences if she ever tried to escape or speak out about the abuse.
Frequently, after enduring another assault, Emily was "rewarded" with crisps and Bacardi. She grew desperate for attention, confusing it with love.
"It seems like you're to blame for everything"
The men would feign affection before mistreating her, claiming she was simply doing “what all teenagers did.” Cut off from her friends at school and surrounded only by other girls who had suffered the same abuse, Emily didn't know any different.
“I would be told they were taking me to the pub for a drink, and I was really pleased, but when I got there I would be taken to a room where there were men waiting for me, and I would be raped again.
“I wanted to tell the police, but I was too frightened of what the men would do if they were crossed, particularly with so much drugs involved.”
Emily was arrested several times during these years for drug possession or violent behavior.
She recalls: “A lot of the men who were Pakistani used English names, so that you never really knew who they were.”
"There were absolutely loads of girls in the town. There were so many. The police must have known, but they just left us there.”
“A public inquiry could potentially offer more transparency and accountability because it’s going to allow for greater public scrutiny and involvement.”
“Victims will know that their voices are going to be heard. An independent inquiry might be more focused and less influenced by political pressures.”
The Telford grooming scandal not only devastated the lives of over 1,000 young girls, but it also led to a triple murder.
A 2022 inquiry revealed that agencies held the children responsible for the abuse they endured, and exploitation was not properly investigated due to a “nervousness about race.”
According to Tom Crowther QC, the inquiry chairman, the abuse persisted unchecked for decades.
At the core of the scandal were the murders of 16-year-old Lucy Lowe, her 17-year-old sister Sarah, and their mother, Eileen, 49, who died in a house fire set by Azhar Ali Mehmood in August 2000.
Mehmood, a taxi driver then aged 26, fathered Lucy’s daughter when she was only 14 and was sentenced to life in prison.
For Emily, the future now looks much brighter than her past.
She has recently joined the board of trustees at the Buckinghamshire charity SafeStep Foundation, which offers support and guidance to victims of child sexual exploitation in the region.
Emily is deeply committed to the cause, viewing it as the key to preventing girls like her from falling prey to such offenders.
“My passion at the moment is policy and research, working on modern slavery legislation, on the standard of care, and making sure that the people running the criminal justice system are trained properly to identify exploitation in children.”
She concludes: “I think justice can mean different things. It can be feeling safe. It can be feeling empowered.”
Emily's name has been altered.
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