Women recount years of sexual and criminal exploitation by drug gangs

The BBC documentary Britain’s Forgotten Girls features four women who describe being targeted as children by men linked to drug gangs, manipulated into abusive relationships, and subjected to prolonged sexual and criminal exploitation, they say.

Christine says she began exchanging messages online at 13 and discovered the person was a man ten years her senior; over the following eight years she says she was coerced into couriering drugs, repeatedly raped and pressured to have sex with others connected to his gang. Annie recalls befriending three older boys who gave her attention before drugging and repeatedly raping her, photographing the assaults and threatening to circulate images unless she had more sex with more people.

Holly says she was recruited to sell and transport drugs across the UK from the age of 14 and was sexually assaulted multiple times, while Violet reports repeated rape after joining a south London gang at 13 and that police focused on drug arrests rather than pursuing rape prosecutions.

Campaigners and experts quoted in the documentary tell the BBC that drug gangs often exploit girls to generate income and that sexual abuse in that context can be widespread. A 2012 inquiry and more recent government audit raised concerns that authorities fail to identify when children are both criminally and sexually exploited.

Liberal News Analysis: What Does This Development Mean?

The four women describe similar patterns: early grooming through attention, escalation into coercion and sexual exploitation, and parallel criminal exploitation for gang profit. They report repeated failures by authorities to prioritise investigations into sexual abuse, with police action concentrating on drug offences in several cases. The accounts informed references in a government audit and the establishment of an independent inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse.

Representatives from the National Police Chiefs’ Council expressed regret at failures where victims felt unheard, and said lessons continue to be learned, the BBC reports. The women have since pursued different paths: working in reproductive health, running a support collective, researching child criminal exploitation, and publishing personal accounts.

Quick Glance: What You Need to Know

• Four women told the BBC they were targeted as children by men linked to drug gangs and subsequently sexually and criminally exploited.
• Victims reported long-term abuse beginning from ages 13–14, including rape, coerced sex with others and transport of drugs.
• They say police often prioritised drug offences over investigating sexual assaults, and none reported seeing prosecutions for their alleged sexual abuse.