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Girls
locked in cages, raped by 700 men: UK MP shares Pak grooming gang testimonies
British
MP Rupert Lowe read out harrowing accounts of systematic sexual assault,
violence, racial targeting, intimidation and alleged police misconduct,
alongside allegations that public authorities, healthcare workers and
children's home staff repeatedly failed to protect vulnerable children.
Some
testimonies alleged that race and religion were used by some perpetrators to
demean, isolate and exert control over victims.
India
Today World Desk
India
Today World Desk
UPDATED:
Jun 3, 2026 09:08 IST
Written
By: Satyam Singh
British
MP Rupert Lowe has reignited debate over the UK's 'grooming gangs' scandal
after an emotional speech in Parliament in which he read testimonies of
survivors. He told Parliament that the world should hear what was said during
the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings, which he said
should never have needed to happen. He urged MPs to listen to the testimonies
of these brave survivors and to finally act.
In his
remarks, Lowe read out harrowing accounts of systematic sexual abuse, violence,
intimidation, racial targeting and alleged police misconduct, alongside claims
that public authorities, healthcare workers and children's home staff
repeatedly failed to protect vulnerable children.
The
testimonies were gathered during an independent inquiry into group-based child
sexual exploitation. According to material linked to that effort, a private
investigation led by him last year identified "gang-based child sexual
exploitation" in at least 85 areas across the UK. A statement issued by
Lowe in August last year said "rape gangs", predominantly comprising
men of Pakistani heritage, had been active for decades and were far more
widespread than thought
HARROWING
ACCOUNTS OF ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION
Among the
accounts Lowe cited was one in which a survivor said: "He took his pants
down, penetrated me, had sex with me. He then stopped before ejaculation. He
picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels, which was now empty, and he forced it up
inside me. He broke the glass while he was there. At that point, I was about
12, nearly 13."
Another
testimony read out by Lowe said: "I was held down by the men as they each
took turns to .... rape me, taking it in turns to pin down my arms and my legs.
When the assault ended, the men hit me repeatedly, threatened to find me, kill
me, and harm my loved ones if I ever told anybody what had happened."
Lowe also
cited testimonies alleging that race and religion were used by some
perpetrators to demean, isolate and exert control over victims.
One
survivor said during inquiry hearings: "Comments were constantly made
suggesting that white girls, the Christian girls, were viewed as having fewer
morals or lower values, whereas Muslim girls were described by some of the men
as having dignity and higher moral standing. These comparisons were used to
justify the way I was treated and to further humiliate and control me."
Another
testimony described how the victim's Christian faith was allegedly mocked
during the abuse. "The main clash that I kind of had with the religion
side of it was I grew up as a Christian. I would wear my cross because it was
something really special to me. It was just used as a way to break me down.
They said, 'Where is your God now? Has your God forsaken you?'"
POLICE
ACCUSED IN SURVIVOR ACCOUNTS
The
British MP also quoted a woman who alleged that some of her attackers were
police officers. "Over the course of the abuse I was raped by multiple
police officers in different parts of the country," the testimony stated.
Other
accounts described the scale of abuse and what survivors said were failures by
institutions to intervene. One testimony said: "It started when I was 13.
I was raped by probably about six or seven hundred different men over three
years."
Lowe also
quoted a survivor who said: "I was bleeding from both my vagina and my
back passage and was so swollen I could not sit down. I told hospital staff my
drink had been spiked and I did not know what had happened because I was too
afraid to tell the truth. They did not ask any questions. They gave me tablets
and discharged me. I was 15 years old."
In
another testimony, a survivor said: "Things would escalate around Eid and
holidays. Parties got bigger, got worse, got more violent. More people
involved, more girls involved. The parties were just bigger."
Lowe said
the account was among the most disturbing testimonies presented during the
inquiry.
He also
cited testimony from a woman who alleged that she witnessed 15-20 women being
held in cages and described being subjected to extreme abuse.
"There
were men around me, not horrified, not disgusted, not helping, but filming and
laughing, making bets on whether the dog could actually rape me or not. And
yes, I was raped by a dog. The man just held my face, stared me down straight
in the eyes, and he wanted to see me break. And he did," said another
survivor.
Lowe
concluded the series of testimonies with a survivor's appeal for action.
"I just wanted it to stop and not happen to any other children and for
people to actually act, to do something and stop being so scared. I could
continue for hours and hours," the testimony said.
The UK MP
then urged lawmakers to move beyond debate and take concrete action. "All
of us in this building have a responsibility to finally act. Not to talk, but
to act. Our rape gang inquiry report will be released in the coming days. It
will change Britain for good," Lowe said.
WHAT ARE
THE UK'S GROOMING GANGS?
In the
UK, the term 'grooming gangs' is commonly used to describe cases in which
vulnerable children and teenagers were manipulated, trafficked, intimidated,
drugged or abused by multiple offenders over long periods. The phrase became
known after investigations in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham
uncovered organised child sexual exploitation and major failures by police,
councils and social services to protect victims. The ongoing UK statutory
inquiry says it is examining "the sexual abuse and exploitation of
children by grooming gangs across England and Wales".
Background
provided in the case history says reports of girls being groomed by gangs of
men, largely of Pakistani heritage, first drew political attention in 2002,
when then Labour MP Ann Cryer warned that it was happening in her West
Yorkshire constituency of Keighley. In 2010, five men were convicted of sexual
offences against girls aged 12 to 16 in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. A later
investigation by The Times exposed both the scale of child sexual exploitation
in Rotherham and a pattern of abuse by organised networks of predominantly
British-Pakistani men. In the years that followed, gangs were jailed in more
than a dozen towns, including Rochdale, Oldham, Telford, Bristol, Oxford,
Huddersfield, Halifax and Banbury.
The term
'grooming gangs' became attached to cases in which girls aged 11 to 16, many of
them white and from troubled backgrounds, were targeted in public, given
attention, alcohol or drugs, and then deceived or forced into sex before being
passed on to other men.
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