Grooming gang survivor accuses Home Office of 'manipulation' and 'gaslighting'

Ellie-Ann Reynolds resigned from the inquiry’s victims and survivors liaison panel on Monday, levelling heavy criticism at the Home Office’s handling of the issue.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, she revealed she decided to step away from the inquiry due to the "control" the Home Office was having over survivors.

She said they were not allowed to seek support from friends or family, from other survivors and were "discouraged" from speaking outside of the panel.

"To me that felt like a division. It felt like it was then set out to try and divide us and make us weak again," she said.

"A lot of survivors, they don't go to authorities for support, they go to family and they go to other survivors because the authorities have failed them so many times before."

She said looking back on it now, it was a "manipulation tactic", and added: "They came across as really nice but equally controlling."

Ms Reynolds continued: "When you read back on the emails now, you can see that it's nothing short of gaslighting how they've run the whole inquiry anyway.

"We were led to believe that we would be shaping the terms of reference and apparently now there's something flying around that the terms of reference have already been drafted - so there was actually no point of us even being there.

"I think from my personal point of view, it's almost like they had the strong survivors on a panel that had been strong enough to agree to do this, to relive their past, and it's basically to find out what we knew and how they were going to cover it up in, in the long run."

Ms Reynolds, who said her abusers were of Bangladeshi heritage, said she believes people have been covering up the grooming gang scandal due to fears of being labeled racist.

"I think it's been a cover up from the start and I think it's just initiating that false hope on the general public so they stay quiet about it," she said of the grooming gang national inquiry.

Ms Reynolds explained that she had been in a relationship with a young male as a child, and his family member was in a relationship with someone who would turn out to be her main abuser.

She said: "I was kidnapped and taken off the street and my abuse started from that.

"I was held hostage for up to a week at a time. I was forced with drugs. I was gang raped multiple times. The very, very nasty men - if you say anything, you're threatened.

"I always think that there's such a stigma that needs to be addressed because everybody just sees that these girls are from broken homes.

"I had a very good upbringing, I was very privileged. So I always like addressing the fact that the stigmas aren't always true."

Ms Reynolds said survivors have been failed twice.

"They've been filled twice by the abuse that they suffered and they've been failed then by the systems and authorities."

While she is disappointed and "heartbroken" by the failures of the inquiry, she said she was not surprised.

"It's another way to silence everybody so that the government and the authorities look like they're doing the job, but they're not. It's basically a whitewash," she said.

Downing Street has denied that the national inquiry into grooming gangs is in crisis, despite two survivors of child sexual abuse quitting their roles and the reported withdrawal of one of the candidates to chair the probe.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters: “No. The grooming gangs scandal, as we’ve said before, was one of the greatest failures in our country’s history. Vulnerable young people let down time and time again.

“We are working with victims from across the country, listening to their individual experiences, to finally get justice.

“And whilst we all want to get on with setting up the inquiry, our priority is getting it right.

“I’d point you back to the original child sexual abuse inquiry, which had three chairs withdraw before Professor Alexis Jay was appointed in 2016, two years after it started. And we’re determined not to let victims down again.”