As a virgin teenager in Rotherham, Emma was gang-raped by Asian gangs – and even suffered a mock execution. Scrawled on two sides of A4 paper are the names of 250 men.
They are the attackers of Emma, who was raped every day for two years. As a teenager, she was passed from one monster to the next. She was gang-raped, had her virginity taken and had her tears laughed at following a mock execution.
After suffering such unimaginable horror, Emma just wanted to torture to end. Tonight she told how she gave police and council officials her “list of shame”.
They did nothing. Tragically, Emma – now 25 – was just another victim of the Rotherham child sex scandal. A report this week revealed how 1,400 youngsters were targeted by gangs of men left free to roam over a 16-year period.
It said the victims were ignored by South Yorkshire authorities and that the number of those abused could be higher. “A lot of them need to face facts,” said Emma, which is not her real name. “They have failed us.” Emma now fears that her handwritten list of attackers – along with clothing she gave to detectives as evidence – has been lost.
Despite this she hopes to finally get justice after her harrowing case was reopened. She said of the authorities: “They should be jailed for what they’ve done. Police Commissioner Shaun Wright should resign.
Emma told how she was first groomed aged 12 by a boy of 17 who came from a wealthy family with Pakistani heritage.
A year later she was raped at an outdoor market while her friend was forced to watch. Emma, who was a virgin at the time, recalled: “I told him I was cold so he put his arms around me and said he’d warm me up.
“He then dragged me round the corner and was on top of me taking my clothes off. There was another man too holding my arms behind my head.
“All these other men came out of nowhere. Two were holding my friend, forcing her eyes open and making her watch. When she got home Emma hid her clothes in a drawer. She said from then on she was controlled. Her abuser raped her once a week and then passed her around his friends and relatives, including his brother-in-law and cousins.
“We would be in Rotherham town centre and a car would pull up,” explained Emma. “They’d tell me to get into the other car. I was driven to the park and then locked in with a man.
“He unzipped his trousers and I said ‘no’. He told me no was not an answer. He got violent, grabbing my throat and hair – then he pushed my face on his penis.
“They also locked me in a bedroom flat, took all my clothes off and sent in man after man. I was there for about six hours.” In another shocking ordeal, a man with gold teeth grabbed a gun from under his car seat, putting it to Emma’s head.
She told how he ordered: “You need to count down because you’re going to die in three seconds.”
He then counted before pulling the trigger – laughing as she sobbed in utter fear.
If Emma believed she would be killed if she tried to escape. Her original abuser tried to set her face alight after spraying it with an aerosol after she threatened to speak out.
Eventually, her mum asked what was happening and Emma blurted out: “I’ve been raped!” Emma said they went to the police and were told it was her word against her abuser’s and that the case “probably wouldn’t go to court”.
And the horror continued as the rapists began circling her estate and making threatening calls, saying they would gang-rape her mother and make her watch.
“They gang-raped me, so what stops them from doing the same thing to my mum?” said Emma. The only way her parents could keep her safe was to move abroad. Emma added: “I slept in Mum’s bed until I was 18.”
Despite the petrifying abuse she suffered, Emma explained: “I feel more anger towards the authorities than I do the perpetrators. They were supposed to be protecting us. They were happy to take their wage and not do anything.
“Now is the time for other women need to come forward to have justice.”
Another victim of the Rotherham child sex scandal who went to the police repeatedly was Jessica. She was groomed at 14 for two years by an Asian man, 25. Mum-of-two Jessica, which is not her real name, said the man she thought she was in love with tried to kill her at least 30 times.
She said: “I was so used to the violence – he punched me, he headbutted me.
That was normal life. He knew I was terrified of heights and used that to scare me.
“He would threaten to drive off a cliff with me in the car. So many times he sped up to 90mph and skidded to a halt just before the edge. He’d then say he was going to throw me off the cliff.
“He actually drove through two cars and into a church during one attempt to kill me. I was 15 and pregnant at the time. I was rushed to hospital.
“One time he saw me chatting to a boy at school. When I got in the car he smashed my face into the dashboard. I’d say he tried to kill me between 20 and 30 times.
“We went to the police every other day and spoke to some senior officers but nothing happened.”
She said she wept after hearing the report: “I can’t believe Rotherham Council has been allowed to get away with this. I think it was a cover up.”
Meanwhile, the mother of a teenager murdered by her abusers said her daughter would still be alive if Rotherham Council and the police had listened to her cries for help.
Laura Wilson, 17, was stabbed to death in 2010 and drowned at knifepoint by her abusers.
The teenager, who was identified as at risk of sexual exploitation five years earlier, was killed because she had fallen pregnant and threatened to tell the man’s family.
Ashitaq Asghar admitted killing Laura Wilson and was jailed for 17-and-a-half years. Her mum Margaret Wilson said she first contacted the authorities about the grooming a decade ago.
She said: “There’s social services and the police as well, who have kept things quiet for so many years.
Too many people getting away with things. If they had acted all those years ago my daughter would still be alive today.”
South Yorkshire Police said: “Officers are currently speaking to a number of people as part of Operation Clover, which is an ongoing live investigation.”