𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The criminal convictions of a woman groomed and raped as a child could be quashed after a landmark legal move.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the case of ‘Ms AB’ to the Crown Courts because “there is a strong argument that she was a victim of trafficking” when she was hauled before magistrates.

The teenager was, aged 14, convicted of being carried in a stolen motor vehicle, driving with no insurance and possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of unlawful violence and assault.

But magistrates were told she was in “a relationship” with a man she’d met when she was 11-years-old.

And the monster – who has not been named by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – raped her and forced the schoolgirl to have sex with his friends by beating and emotionally blackmailing her.

The CCRC has decided “there is a real possibility the convictions would not be upheld on appeal to the Crown Court as the failure to protect Ms AB and the failure to investigate left her unable to effectively participate in the proceedings and consider any defences open to her.”

It is the first referral since Baroness Louise Casey’s shocking report into widespread abuse was published in June.

CCRC Chair Dame Vera Baird KC said: “It is clear the victim in this case had a poor early life and was failed at every turn by multiple authorities, who should have been supporting and protecting her.

“There is a strong argument that she was a victim of trafficking, was sexually abused and that the police and social services failed to protect her from group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse and didn’t take steps to investigate or prevent it. Ms AB seems to have been viewed as an adult, rather than as a child.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is a shameful case.

“It shows that those in authority treated victims as perpetrators – because the victims were mostly young white girls, and the real perpetrators were mostly men of Pakistani origin.

“It is sick that the system criminalised the victims – young, vulnerable girls.

“This also happened when Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions, and Starmer needs to be summoned to the inquiry to give evidence under oath.”

Baroness Louise Casey, in her bombshell 200-page report into Britain’s grooming gangs crisis, warned rape gang victims were criminalised by the police, rather than officers hunting down their attackers.

Baroness Casey said convictions should be quashed “where Government finds victims were criminalised instead of protected”.

She added: “This will help to restore some justice to victims who may have been treated inappropriately in the past, receiving criminal justice sanctions where safeguarding protections should have been applied.”

Outlining the devastating impact this abuse can have, Baroness Casey said: “Children who are being sexually exploited might be groomed or coerced into committing offences by their abusers as part of their exploitation, such as carrying drugs, to avert further abuse.

“Or they might seemingly ‘recruit’ others into exploitation.

“Abusers might use the fact that their victims have committed crimes to prevent them disclosing abuse to the police or others.

“Victims might also commit crimes to find safety or in direct response to their abuse, or as an expression of internal trauma, such as damaging property belonging to someone who has harmed them.

“Where people are sexually exploited as children and have criminal records into adulthood, they might be prevented from getting jobs and have to live with the constant reminder and often shame of having to explain their criminal record. Some victims are on the sex offenders register, preventing them from working with children or even attending their own children’s school trips.”

Dame Vera added: “Baroness Casey’s report called for urgent action to address systemic failures around child sexual exploitation and abuse.

“The CCRC is actively investigating cases where victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) were treated as offenders instead of being protected as victims.

“We are conscious that there will be many other victims who were in a similar position and would assure them that we will investigate their cases too.

“They only need to apply; I know it will be distressing to revisit a dreadful time in their lives, but we might be able to help to tackle convictions like these.

“People can also approach us through a charity or an organisation which provides support for victims of crime.”