‘Terrified’ victim of Hull grooming gang beaten and burned during violent rape
An alleged victim of a Hull grooming gang has told how she was bitten, beaten and burned during a violent rape – and that police and her school had concerns she was being abused but failed to stop it.
Warning: This article includes graphic content
The teenage girl’s mother was so worried after her daughter repeatedly went missing with the men that she placed a tracker in her bag.
She is the second young woman to tell Sky News of her ordeal at the hands of grooming gangs allegedly still at large in the East Yorkshire city.
Several young women have told Sky News they were abused by grooming gangs in Hull
The first woman, Sarah (which is not her real name), previously told how she was raped by around 150 men from the age of 13.
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‘I was raped by 150 men’
Sky News has been given exclusive access to diaries and other documents that appear to support the claims of the second alleged victim, Anna (also not her real name).
Both Sarah and Anna have accused at least one of the same men of rape.
A two-year investigation by Humberside Police stalled after officers concluded there was not enough evidence to take the case to court.
But after seeing the evidence gathered by Sky News, former police chief Jim Gamble said it was “time to declare war” on criminals getting away with “rape by appointment”.
The dossier of evidence compiled by Anna includes her teenage diary, the account of her school welfare officer and images of bruising and strangulation, which she says was caused by her abusers.
Anna suffered bruising to her neck
Anna’s diary, which was seized by police but later given back to her, appears to offer insight into the world of a young abuse victim.
“I feel like I’m living a double life,” she wrote.
“Normal Anna spends time with friends and family and goes out. A normal teenager – this is the Anna most people see.”
But underneath she tells of a different Anna.
“Scared, terrified and abused Anna,” she wrote.
“The Anna that feels controlled like a puppet.”
Anna drew an image depicting a puppet in her diary
Anna was 16 when the abuse started – so during the police investigation there was a greater need to prove she was coerced by the men.
However, that evidence does seem to exist.
Firstly, she took photos of the bruising on her neck and arms, which match injuries she mentions in her diary.
Anna also suffered bruising to her arm
She also regularly updated her school’s welfare officer who made her own log on what was happening.
Over the course of 18 months there are 290 logs, mostly referring to concerns about child exploitation.
In the logs, Anna constantly refers to the fear she has of the men she is seeing when she goes missing from school.
An extract from 22 January 2019 reads: “Anna had a small red mark on left cheek, I could see blood stains on her left knee.
“She knows what they do is ‘harm’ but she ‘normalises’ it. (She says) If she ignores their calls / messages, then there is more harm.”
A school log noted an injury on Anna’s face
In the log, Anna’s teacher notes seeing messages saying: “‘I’ll actually kill you’ and ‘Don’t ignore me’ from a man who works in a local takeaway shop and has been outside school.”
In total, Anna provided more than a thousand pages of evidence which Sky News has shared with Mr Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
A school log noted a death threat sent to Anna
He told Sky News: “Having looked at the information that is there, there is no true consent that I can see. And anyone who just looks at a few of these papers will see that.
“Consent needs to be freely given it needs to be a true consent. It doesn’t come with threats to kill your parents. It doesn’t come with threats to be waiting outside your school.”
It is clear Anna’s school and police had real-time knowledge that she was repeatedly going missing, and there were multiple concerns she was being intimidated and abused yet they seem unable to stop it.
Anna’s mother told Sky News she was so concerned she placed a tracker in her daughter’s bag and would sometimes email the police with information about where she was.
Anna spoke to Sky News about the sexual abuse she suffered
She said on one occasion Anna was picked up by police in the company of older men and the family received threats when her daughter started resisting the gang.
“We’ve had the odd few cars outside the house, with Asian men actually looking in,” Anna’s mother said.
“And they’ve messaged Anna saying: ‘I’m outside your house’, which was quite frightening for Anna as well as myself.”
Anna’s mother said she also saw threatening Snapchat messages including one that read: “If you don’t come with us tonight, you s**g, I will do whatever to you, or I will kill your parents”.
“There was just a lot of threatening messages, very nasty messages towards Anna,” she added.
The abuse is first logged in an entry in Anna’s diary on 1 November 2018, when she describes a violent sexual assault from someone she says was an older boy at school.
Anna wrote: “Physical abuse: bitten, hit/slapped, dragged by legs, pinned down, hand over mouth, spat on, burnt, drink thrown at me, choked, neck locked tight.”
She continued: “Rape… I can’t write anymore yet, too fresh.”
Anna described being beaten and burnt during a violent rape
After this, a group of different older men seem to take control of her life.
She was contacted with explicit requests and her account tells of a man taking her to a forest, strangling her and threatening to kill her.
Anna told Sky News: “The main thing that was in my head was if I don’t do this something worse is going to happen. So, I’ll have to go.
“I felt I was protecting my family by going back. And it’s just the whole cycle you’re in, it’s hard to get out of.
“When you’re so far into it, you’re just normalised to it
“When no-one’s offering you help, you kind of think ‘well it can’t be that bad if no one’s bothered’.”
Her frustration comes off the page of her diary in emotions, poems, lists of days when she is missing or abused and graphic accounts of the attacks.
Anna noted in her diary that ‘one day I will have a body you never touched’
Amid notes about school homework, there are thoughts like this: “Today in science class I learned every cell in our body is replaced every 7 years. How lovely it is to know one day I will have a body you never touched.”
Mr Gamble describes the passage as one of the most powerful things he has read in his career.
He said “We’re almost at the point where we need to declare war on this type of behaviour, we need to say it as a priority.
“It’s not just about exploitation, it is about rape by appointment. It is about brutal individuals who are hurting our children.”
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‘I was sold into the sex trade’
The diaries also offer an insight into the brainwashing that is part of the grooming process.
Sometimes Anna thinks the men love her and she expresses concern about them. She seems wired to their control.
Jo Wagstaff, a psychotherapist who has worked with victims of the gangs including Anna, told Sky News: “I think deep down, these girls know that it’s not okay, especially at the point where they’re being hurt.
“In the beginning, I think there is an element that it feels like they’re in a friendship or a relationship, or that they’re loved and cared for by these people. And that that’s very real to them.
“That’s where the brainwashing comes in. In that, ‘actually, I’ve done this for you, and I’ve given you everything’. So now you need to pay me back.'”
Humberside Police have told Sky News that following arrests and the seizure of 150 devices from suspects and after following thousands of lines of inquiry, they have not reached the evidence threshold to take Anna or Sarah’s case to court.
However, they added that if more victims or witnesses come forward, they would be keen to interview them.
In the final report in this series, Sky News will meet Kate – another alleged victim – who it seems was completely off the police radar and has not yet been interviewed by them.
Three men have been jailed for a combined total of 99 years for plotting to murder a member of a gang that carried out Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery.
Paul Allen, 46, was shot twice as he stood in his kitchen in Woodford, east London, on 11 July 2019.
He was a member of the Securitas heist gang that stole £54m from a cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006.
The former cage fighter was living in a large detached rented house with his partner and three young children after being released from an 18-year prison sentence over the raid.
The attack at his home has left him paralysed from the chest down.
Louis Ahearne, 36, Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Daniel Kelly, 46, denied conspiring to murder Allen but were found guilty last month following a trial at the Old Bailey.
The trio were sentenced at the Old Bailey in central London on Friday.
Kelly was sentenced to 36 years in prison and an extra five years on licence, Louis Ahearne was jailed for 33 years, and his sibling Stewart Ahearne – 30 years.
Damage to the kitchen door. Pic: Met Police/PA
A bullet casing found in the back garden. Pic: Met Police
Prosecutors did not give a motive for the murder plot, though they described the victim as a “sophisticated” career criminal.
Detectives said the shooting could seem like “the plot [of] a Hollywood blockbuster” but added it was actually “horrific criminality” from “hardened organised criminals”.
In her sentencing remarks, the judge said she believed the trio “were motivated by a promise of financial gain”.
Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said: “I have no doubt that this agreement to murder Paul Allen involved other people apart from the three of you and that you three were motivated by a promise of financial gain.
“The culpability of each one of you is very high.
“The harm caused to the victim was very serious – indeed, short of killing him it could hardly be more serious. He is currently paralysed and relies on others for every single need.”
The shooting was just the latest act in a long list of criminal deeds. The day before, Kelly and Louise Ahearne used a rented car to carry out a burglary in Kent, accessing the gated community by pretending to be police officers.
A month before that, the trio had stolen more than $3.5m (£2.78m) worth of Ming dynasty antiques from the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva, for which the Ahearne brothers had been jailed in Switzerland.
Kelly is also wanted in Japan over the robbery of a Tokyo jewellery store in 2015 in which a security guard was punched in the face.
A man has been jailed for life for the murder of university lecturer Claire Chick.
Paul Butler was sentenced to a minimum term of 27 years for killing his estranged wife after a six-month campaign of stalking and harassment when he refused to accept their relationship was over.
Ms Chick, 48, was found seriously injured on West Hoe Road in Plymouth just before 9pm on 22 January. She was taken to hospital, but died the next day.
Previously known as Claire Butler, Ms Chick worked at the University of Plymouth.
Paul Butler has been jailed for murder. Pic: Devon & Cornwall Police
She died after a frenzied attack outside her home – the attack a culmination of months of harassment, stalking and violence at the hands of Butler.
Following her death, Devon and Cornwall Police made a referral to the police watchdog due to previous contact prior to her death.
Jo Martin KC, prosecuting, said Ms Chick had made six statements to the police about Butler and he had been arrested three times.
In her final statement to police the day before he killed her outside her own home, she said: “I only feel that Butler will kill me if further action is not taken. I am in fear of leaving my house.”
Butler was arrested around 20 miles away in the Liskeard area on 24 January.
He was sentenced on Friday at Plymouth Crown Court, having previously pleaded guilty to murder, and to one charge of possession of a bladed article.
‘I loved Claire’
The family of Ms Chick told the court how her murder left a “huge void” in their lives.
Her eldest daughter, Bethany Hancock-Baxter, described Butler as “evil”.
She said: “I want this evil man to listen to me. I want you to know what you have done to us as a family.
“Despite all the hate I have for you, I cannot bring myself to do what you did to my mum – that’s because I am not evil like you.”
Her sister, Lydia Peers, said Butler was a “parasite”.
After her short-lived marriage to Butler, Ms Chick began a relationship with another man, Paul Maxwell.
Mr Maxwell spoke from the witness box and repeatedly stared at the defendant as he spoke. Butler stared back at him.
“I loved Claire. She was beautiful, funny and kind,” Mr Maxwell said.
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UK
Vincent Nichols: British cardinal who will be in the conclave says picking the next pope is ‘intimidating’
The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has told Sky News it’s “intimidating” to be one of those responsible for choosing the next pope.
Vincent Nichols is among four UK cardinals in Rome for the Pope’s funeral on Saturday.
Following the funeral, and after nine days of mourning, cardinals from around the world will gather in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to cast their votes, with white smoke announcing to the world when a new pope has been elected.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols speaks to Sky’s Anna Botting
Cardinal Nichols told Sky’s Anna Botting: “I hope nobody goes into this conclave, as it were, with the sole purpose of wanting to win. I think it’s very important that we go in wanting to listen to each other… It has to be together, trying to sense what God wants next. Not just for the church.”
He described the procession that took Pope Francis to lie in state as “the most moving thing I’ve ever attended here”.
Describing the Pope as a “master of the gesture and the phrase”, he also recalled the pontiff’s last journey away from the Vatican.
Cardinal Nichols said Pope Francis had visited the Regina Coeli prison, telling the inmates: “You know, except for the grace of God, it could well have been me … Don’t lose hope, God has you written in his heart.”
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‘Pope touched the hearts of millions’
The Pope later told his doctor his last regret was not being able to wash the feet of the prisoners during that visit.
Becoming emotional, he also said the final message he would like to have given Pope Francis is “thank you”.
The 88-year-old died peacefully on Easter Monday, the Vatican confirmed.
Heads of state – including Sir Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron – have all confirmed their attendance at his funeral, which takes place on Saturday at St Peter’s Square.
Prince William will attend on behalf of the King, Kensington Palace has said.
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Where will Pope Francis be buried?
Talking about the seating plan at the funeral, Cardinal Nichols said he understood it to be “royalty first, then heads of state, then political leaders”.
Worldwide geopolitical tensions mean that many eyes will be on interactions between heads of state at the event, with particular focus on Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy following their tense meeting at the Oval Office in February.
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Pope’s cause of death confirmed .
Looking back at the last papal funeral, Cardinal Nichols described the seating of the then Prince Charles one seat away from Zimbabwean present Robert Mugabe as “obviously a little bit tense”.
Cardinal Nichols explained event would be “exactly the same Catholic rite as everyone else – just on a grander scale”.
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3D map shows pope’s funeral route
In a break from tradition, Pope Francis will be the first pope in a century to be interred outside the Vatican – and will instead be laid to rest at his favourite church, Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood.
He will also be buried in just one simple wooden coffin, instead of the traditional three coffins which are usually used for pontiffs.
Born in Crosby near Liverpool, Cardinal Vincent Nichols hoped to be a lorry driver as a child – but as a teenager reportedly felt the calling to join the priesthood while watching Liverpool FC.
As cardinal, he is known for leading the church’s work tackling human trafficking and modern slavery, for which he received the UN Path to Peace Award.
He was criticised by the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which said he “demonstrated a lack of understanding” of the impact of abuse and “seemingly put the reputation of the church first”.
Cardinal Nichols, responding to the findings, previously told Sky News he was “ashamed at what has happened in the context of the Catholic Church” and promised to improve the church’s response.
He has appeared to rule himself out of the running for pope, telling reporters he was “too old, not capable”.
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