The father of a grooming victim who was raped by more than 60 men has said she still lives with the “trauma every single day”.
Marlon West, 51, said Scarlett, now 20, was an academic student at a school in Greater Manchester.
She was happy with a good friendship group and enjoyed riding her horse, Jasper.
But her life changed after she was attacked by a gang at a bus station – they started bullying her and she decided it was better to become their friends.
An older female member then started grooming her for rape gangs made up of Muslim men, her father told Sky News.
Mr West said six men were involved in grooming her from the age of 14 but she was raped by more than 60 before the abuse finally stopped shortly before she turned 18.
By then, she was too terrified to leave home.
“Scarlett isn’t a survivor and a lot of these other girls aren’t survivors,” he said. “The reason being is they’re still living with the trauma every day.”
Mr West, an advanced nurse practitioner for mental health services at the NHS, said his daughter was thrown out of school aged 14 and would go missing for weeks at a time.
On one occasion, he tracked her down to a property in Derbyshire, but when he eventually persuaded police to attend, he was told Scarlett was “safe” with the woman who groomed her and “her friends”.
Mr West said he was “absolutely furious” when police and social services dismissed the abuse as “a lifestyle choice” and was so desperate he put Scarlett into care when she was 15.
“I couldn’t keep her safe,” he said. “It’s the hardest decision of my life.”
But within a week of her returning home, when she had to leave the care system after turning 16, she was going missing again.
Mr West said the female groomer had stayed in contact with Scarlett and “was literally waiting for her” when she came home.
She was then trafficked all over the country, including Bradford, Birmingham and London.
Mr West said he had to “scream” at police to track her down before they raided a property in Rochdale where she was found along with heroin and crack cocaine.
Scarlett was arrested and released on bail, but wasn’t charged because she was on a Home Office database as being at risk of trafficking, he said.
“Even though that [arrest] was inappropriate, that stopped it because she was terrified of going out of the house, which she still is now to a certain extent.”
Mr West believes the abuse also came to an end because she was getting older and her abusers were no longer interested.
“This is not just about child sexual exploitation but also criminal exploitation – she was doing county lines, she was picking up firearms for them,” he said.
Mr West said any child can be at risk of grooming.
“They’re stereotyping a lot of these survivors, that they’re coming from broken homes, or they’re in care,” he said.
“A groomer doesn’t stand outside a school gate and think, ‘I’m not grooming her because her dad’s a doctor or her dad’s a GP’ – they don’t care. Once they target, that’s it.”
Mr West was speaking as a report by police watchdogs revealed Greater Manchester Police has live grooming investigations involving 714 victims and survivors.
The force said it has 1,099 lines of enquiry relating to potential suspects but only 269 who are confirmed.
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“I think there’s more – a lot of survivors haven’t come forward. One, because they’re probably still being groomed and secondly because they’re terrified of GMP and how they’ve been treated in the past,” he said.
“It’s higher than it’s ever been. Services such as police and social services are terrified of political correctness.
“The groomers know they can get away with it because there aren’t many arrests and so it’s increased.”
GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson promised to go after child rapists and paedophiles “relentlessly” after the publication of the report, which was largely positive about the force’s turnaround in tackling the gangs.
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But Mr West believes they are “still failing”, although he welcomed the investigation opened into his daughter’s case.
He said he is “hopeful” the national inquiry into grooming gangs by the government last month “will expose a lot of the cover-ups and give accountability” but is worried about the involvement of services such as councils and police forces because of a lack of trust.
A GMP spokesperson said: “We have met with Scarlett and her father and we’re conducting an extensive investigation into their allegations.
“While we understand the impact of their experiences cannot be undone, we aim to ensure that the experience of the GMP of today would be much improved from that of previous years.”
A Tameside Council spokesperson previously said they were legally unable to comment on Scarlett’s case.
But they said: “Where any concerns or issues are raised we work closely with individuals, families and our partners to provide support and resolve, as appropriate.
“Where individuals aren’t satisfied with the services received, we do have a statutory complaints procedure and individuals can ultimately take their complaint to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman.”
