'Catastrophic failings' mustn't be repeated warns Telford child sexual exploitation survivor

"Catastrophic failings" revealed by Telford's child sexual exploitation inquiry must never be repeated, says the survivor whose haunting story sparked the investigation.

For Holly Archer, the publication of the Crowther Report, which found that more than 1,000 children had been sexually exploited in Telford, came after seven years of campaigning for authorities to take action over the issue.

Holly, who is now 36 and runs a support group for survivors, called The Holly Project, endured savage and horrific abuse as a young girl.

For more than four years from the age of 14 she was exploited, violently beaten and raped by her abusers in Wellington.

Her story, revealed by the Daily Mirror with journalist Geraldine McKelvie, sparked a national focus on Telford, and led to the launch of the Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation.

Its findings, published yesterday, made for shocking and upsetting reading – with "obvious CSE ignored", victims blamed, and the crimes dismissed as 'child prostitution'.

Holly, said she was not shocked by the extent of the failings, but had been sad that her long-standing fears had been validated.

She said: "I was not surprised by what it found, I think I felt a massive disappointment that I was right. I really wanted to be wrong, and the thing that really upset me was I found out things about myself that I did not know, about processes around me that failed me, processes that took place, and that was quite upsetting."

Holly said that she has confidence that inquiry chairman Tom Crowther QC will ensure all 47 recommendations contained in the report are carried out, but said it is vital that key protection teams in both the police, and Telford & Wrekin Council, have long-term funding, beyond the five years planned.

It comes after both organisations were criticised for allowing their CSE response to go "back almost a decade" in the wake of the 2013 Operation Chalice prosecutions by disbanding key teams involved in the case.

Holly said that while she believes significant steps have been taken in ensuring other victims will be believed and helped, it is vital the authorities make dedicated teams a permanent feature, warning "they will always be needed".

She said: "I think things have improved, they have had to improve since 2018 because they knew this was coming.

"My concern is more, as Tom Crowther has said in the report, he recommends funding for the CSE team in the police and the CATE team at the council is ring-fenced for five years. My concern is after five years those teams will no longer be forcibly required and the problem of CSE is not going anywhere.

"As long as there are children, there will be people who want to exploit them, and that team will always be required here."

Holly's own experiences led her to leave Telford, seeking refuge in education at university.

She had grown up in what would be considered a 'normal family', with no social worker involvement and no child protection plans.

Holly said: "I was vulnerable because I was a young person and it was a simple as that, I feel very much I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

She explained how her abuse had been centred around gifts – and the terrifying threats and demands that came as payback for them.

"It was not 'I love you', it was more about basic needs," she said.

"Giving me money, telephone cards, buying me food, those kind of things, and something like an innocent gift then being like 'You owe me back and if you don't do it these are the consequences'.

Her abusers would threaten to burn her family home down and kill her mother, while she also suffered violent beatings.

Holly said: "What is worse, you have to weigh up in your mind as a 14-year-old, do I want to be absolutely beaten black and blue with a belt or is it easier to zone out and just take the rape. It is a very difficult predicament to be in mentally and as time goes on it does become mentally easier not to be beaten."

She said she had been shocked at the information revealed about the police failings in the report.

"I think the failures are catastrophic," she said.

"For me personally I feel very very let down by West Mercia Police. Throughout this whole process from the day we started the campaigning, me and Geraldine, that has been seven years of gathering information, trying to figure things out. I never thought the police would have not done as much as they have not done."

She added: "It was upsetting how much the police I felt let me down, and I feel like that more about the police than the council because I never had a social worker. I feel the information the police had on me, there should have been reports to safeguarding officers, I should have had a child protection plan in place

"If I had the acknowledgement of someone somewhere telling me this was not okay, maybe my life would have been very different."

Holly also said the failure to take action earlier had exposed scores more victims to abuse.

She said: "I feel if they had stepped in, for us the girls who were being exploited at the time, at an earlier opportunity, other children would not have been exploited and I believe that is on the police for not acting on the information they had."

Holly also spoke of the continuing mental strain of the stigma of being described as a child prostitute, when she herself needed help.

She said: "There were other factors that prevented people doing things and one of those was they believed we were the problem – the victims were the problem; 'asking for it' is the charge I got from the report.

"That we were termed sex workers when we were children and the attitude of 'if they wanted to do it, leave them to it'.

"And for us survivors that's the thing that impacts us the most, because we still feel the shame and stigma of being classed as a prostitute as a child."

Holly said she and the survivors she is in contact with had been relieved at the thorough nature of the report – and have faith that Mr Crother QC will follow through on its findings.

She said: "I know the other survivors who were there with me yesterday were also happy with how thorough it was and how much information was there. I believe he has acted on all the information he was provided with.

"All 47 recommendations are easy to implement. They are reasonable and I believe Tom will come back in two years and review that and check their implementation and I trust him when he says he is adamant they will be implemented by then."