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Watch: 'I see my abusers in the supermarket' - survivors of Oxford gang tell of ongoing torment Warning: This story contains details of sexual violence Survivors of an Oxford grooming gang say they still see men who sexually abused them, and who have not been brought to justice, walking around the city. "A shop, a petrol station, a restaurant - everywhere you can imagine - you'll see a man that's done something," one survivor, Sarah, tells BBC Panorama. Sarah and two other survivors believe "hundreds" of perpetrators are still free. An ex-police detective who led the initial investigation into grooming gangs in Oxford agrees. It is the first time that Sarah (whose name we have changed) and one of the other women have spoken out publicly about what they were subjected to. Sarah says she was sexually abused and plied with heroin from the age of 11. More than two decades later, three men were found guilty of abusing her after she testified against them in court. They were jailed for between five and 24 years in 2020. But it was too little, too late for Sarah, who has battled drug addiction for most her life and has spent time in jail. "I think they should stay in there forever, because obviously they've taken my life," she says. Chloe, another survivor whose name we have changed, says she also sees some of her abusers in her local area. Like many survivors, she chose not to go through a police investigation. "It's difficult because this is where I live, it's where I grew up. There is a few of them that I've seen a few times, even just in the supermarket, driving around," she explains. She feels "sick, cold" when she sees them, she says. Sarah, whose image is blurred to protect her identity, said the gang had "taken her life" A third woman, Rachel - again, whose name we have changed - was abused between the ages of 12 to 15 and says many of those men are still free. She was a key witness in the first trial of Oxford grooming gang members, in 2013, when seven men were convicted. That trial revealed the grooming, trafficking and rape of six girls over an eight year-period in the city. But subsequent prosecutions have identified many more victims, and it was estimated in 2015 that more than 370 children were affected. Rachel says, for years, police did not believe her when she told them what was happening to her. She and the other women say the investigations have not gone far enough. Thames Valley Police works tirelessly to investigate offenders involved in these horrific crimes and bring them to justice, a spokesperson said. "It is never too late to come forward", the spokesperson continued, and the force will listen and do everything it can to support victims, survivors and their families. Gangs of men were found to have sexually exploited and abused underage girls in several towns and cities - including Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, as well as Oxford - between the 1990s and 2010s. Oxford was one of the places where most of the perpetrators were identified as older men of Pakistani heritage. In some cases, such as in Rotherham, police were accused of hesitating to act out of fear of being seen as racist. But in Oxford a serious case review found no evidence that this had been a factor. Now, the government has launched a national inquiry to address why vulnerable children were not protected in England and Wales - including whether attitudes to the girls or the ethnicity of the perpetrators contributed to the failings. Trapped in a cycle of abuse and addiction Sarah says the cigarettes she was given by her groomers were laced with heroin. "My addiction through my whole life now has resulted from them giving us those cigarettes," she says. She agreed not to take drugs before speaking to Panorama and received support from her case worker. Sarah says the men who gave her the cigarettes - and alcohol - then told her she was in debt and needed to have sex with them in order to pay them back. "They're like, 'well you know, you owe me this money now, so you're going to have to do this'," she says. "They used to say 'drink this, drink that' to the point where I'm throwing up and sick. Having to be in them houses and feeling trapped. They used to just lock us in. "Then before you know it, there's one, two, six, seven people turning up. You're just outnumbered, basically." Rachel, from the age of 12, also found herself in a cycle of sexual abuse and drug addiction. She was trafficked to other towns and cities where men paid the gang for sex with her. Rachel says she was not believed for years and that investigations have not gone far enough A police officer even tried to take advantage of her in Oxford, she says, but she never reported the incident. "I was put in the back of a police van on the Cowley Road and there was two male officers and one of them said, 'Well, we know what you're about.'" He then asked her to perform oral sex on him, she says. Despite a total of 21 men now having been convicted in connection with the Oxford grooming gang, Rachel says there are many perpetrators who have never faced consequences. "There are a lot of people out there who have been involved in this to some degree or another, that have just been allowed to get on with their lives that were involved in the sexual abuse of children." Getty Images / Many of the girls were targeted in the Cowley area of the city, pictured here in 2015 As one of the hidden victims of the Oxford grooming gang, none of Chloe's abusers have faced justice for the crimes committed against her. Until now, she has told just a handful of people about what happened to her from the age of 13. Her account of what happened follows a familiar pattern. The men would befriend her, pay for things, ply her with alcohol, and then tell her she was in debt and sexually abuse her. "They'd pick us up and there'd be like this random old man in the car and then we'd go to this flat, for example," recalls Chloe, now in her thirties. Asked what then happened in

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  • 发布时间：2026/9/21 13:00:34