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'I was raped by nine men but only one faced justice': Grooming survivor 'failed by the system' calls for inquiry
10 January 2025, 09:02 | Updated: 10 January 2025, 09:28
A grooming survivor has told LBC she was "failed by the system" after only one man was convicted of her gang rape.
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Samantha Walker-Roberts, 31, told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast she believes she was raped by as many as nine men in Oldham, Greater Manchester, in 2006 aged 12. When the case went through the courts, four were prosecuted.
Just one - Shakil Chowdhury, then aged 39 - was jailed in 2007, for six years after admitting six counts of rape.
He served only three years in prison. Another man fled because the judge gave him his passport back, Ms Walker-Roberts said.
Police have never been able to track the other rapists down, Ms Walker-Roberts said.
Read more: Nigel Farage pledges to launch Reform's own inquiry into grooming gangs scandal
Speaking to LBC in a broadcast exclusive, Ms Walker-Roberts said she had been sexually assaulted in a church and went to police to ask for help. She said officers told her to "sober up" and come back at a later date.
Two men arrived at the police station, offered to give her a lift, and the police desk clerk told her to go with them, Ms Walker-Roberts said. She was then taken to a property and raped.
A debate has raged in recent weeks over launching a national inquiry into grooming gangs, after possibly thousands of girls were assaulted over decades in several towns across the UK.
The issue has been championed by the right-wing billionaire Elon Musk, the American owner of social media site X. Keir Starmer clashed with Musk over the grooming gangs debate, and criticised the "far-right".
Many of the perpetrators of the mass rapes of children were said to be men of Pakistani origin and some have raised concerns that investigations were hampered by fears of appearing racist.
Ms Walker-Roberts said she backed a government inquiry into Oldham, but that "a national inquiry will overshadow Oldham".
She said she appreciated that Elon Musk has drawn attention to the topic of grooming gangs, adding that it had not been talked about openly enough before. "For too long we've whispered about this topic and never really made it open," she added.
Ms Walker-Roberts said that an inquiry needed to look at social services predominantly, adding: "I feel that there’s a lot of victim blaming..."
She said that the inquiry also needs to "look at the bigger picture" of why so many young girls were vulnerable and able to be preyed upon.
"Usually it's because they've come from a broken home and social services didn't safeguard them."
She said that she had had an apology from Greater Manchester Police, but that it was essentially meaningless to her.
Ms Walker-Roberts said that she had been let down and officers could have done a lot more at the time to pursue prosecutions "if they had done their job properly".
She said she was speaking publicly and waiving her anonymity because a lot of survivors are scared to come forward. She said that she hoped speaking out about her experiences would give survivors confidence.
Ms Walker-Roberts was first groomed online aged just 12, by Paul Waites, a former teacher who later sexually assaulted and raped her.
Nick Ferrari says politicians ‘are frightened’ over terminology around grooming gangs
In April 2015, Waites, then 42, was jailed for eleven years for rape, four years concurrently for causing or inciting sexual activity with an underage child, three years concurrently for sexual assault, two years concurrently for sexual assault and 12 months concurrently for sexual grooming.
Weeks after the attack by Waites, Ms Walker-Roberts, still aged 12, fell into the clutches of a paedophile ring and was raped repeatedly by a gang at a house in Oldham.
She told police she had originally gone to the police station to report a sexual assault but was ordered to go home and sober up.
But she was picked up by strangers, passed around among predators, and raped.
Ms Walker-Roberts went on to launch 'You have not defeated me', a campaign which demanded more support and understanding for grooming victims.
The government has refused to launch a fresh national inquiry into grooming gangs, pointing out that there has already been one and they are focused on implementing some of the recommendations.
Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones told Nick on Tuesday that British people want "less talk, more action".
A vote attempting to force an inquiry, led by the Conservatives, failed this week.
Labour's mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said this week that he supports a new inquiry, breaking with the government. He also criticised the Conservatives for "opportunism".
Lisa Nandy, a government minister told Nick she understands his concerns about the limited powers of local inquiries.
