IN 2001, at just 11 years old, Josie Clark was groomed by a gang and subjected to five years of horrific sexual abuse.
After bravely reporting her abusers, they were convicted in 2007, and 16 years later, Josie was awarded compensation.
But she has never received an apology from those she says failed to protect her.
Here, Josie, now 32, exclusively tells her story.
Standing alone in the dark, without a clue where I was, I wondered how I was going to get home.
I was just 11 years old and, minutes earlier, I’d been in a car full of middle-aged men, who had abandoned me after I refused to have sex with men they had promised me to.
I thought they were my friends, but I was learning that was far from the truth.
It was only years later that I’d realise the men, who were mostly Asian, were part of a paedophile ring, who preyed on vulnerable children like me.
When I was four, I was taken from my family in Blackburn and placed in care.
By the time I left primary school, I’d been in so many foster and children’s homes, I’d lost count.
In one of the homes, when I was six, I was sexually abused by an older teenage resident.
I didn’t have anywhere to call my own – but what hurt most was not having anyone to love me.
So, when an older girl from school invited me out with some men she knew, I jumped at the chance.
After driving around Blackburn for a while, they bought us a takeaway and dropped us back.
It felt so nice to have some friendly attention.
“Same time tomorrow?” they said, and I nodded enthusiastically.
I began to meet the men every afternoon.
They provided food and made me feel special for the first time in my life, telling me I was beautiful.
One said he loved me and wanted to marry me.
At last, I thought, I had a future.
But a few weeks later, the men said they wanted something in return.
I was so naive – I was only 11 and hadn’t seen this coming.
I was terrified, and knew I had to do what they said.
Along with other girls, many of whom I didn’t know, I was repeatedly sexually assaulted and abused by a string of different men.
Even the man who wanted to marry me raped me.
I was also given alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine until I became addicted and therefore reliant on the men.
If I tried to refuse to do what they asked, they’d hit me or threaten me, telling me they knew where I lived and where my mum – who I had sporadic contact with – lived.
One had a knife and others showed me a gun, leaving me in no doubt that they’d hurt me.
As months passed, the gang grew bigger.
Sometimes, after I’d been forced to have sex with men, I’d get out of one car and straight into another.
Other times, I’d stay overnight in a dingy property belonging to a gang member.
I was sexually assaulted and raped so many times, it became a blur.
And because of all the drugs I was given, I hardly knew what I was doing.
Yet still, I was convinced these men were my friends.
I was brainwashed.
At the children’s home, the staff despaired.
I refused to tell them who I was meeting up with.
Some nights, if I was late back, I found my bedroom door locked.
Other times, my pocket money was stopped.
On the occasions I turned up at school, I was usually on drugs, and I was finally excluded at 15.
No one found me a new school and I went to an approved unit for a short time and didn’t do well in my exams.
I fell through the system.
I felt my teachers never seriously tried to help me.
Over five years, I was abused by hundreds of men.
Some days, it would be one or two, but on others, it was as many as 10 to 20.
I was usually paired up with another girl and put into a car, before being taken to either an old tyre shop or a flat where we were raped.
I hated my life, but was so scared of the men that I had to keep doing what they said.
When it became too much to bear, I refused to cooperate.
But when that happened, they locked me in a disused factory in Accrington for hours or badly beat me.
The turning point came when, aged 15, my friend and I managed to escape, when one of the men tried to attack us with an iron bar after my friend had refused to have sex with him.
We were sure we’d have been killed if we hadn’t fled, so we told a police officer who knew us from the children’s home.
At first, I didn’t mention the sexual assaults, because I didn’t think they were wrong.
When I finally did, I was shocked by how seriously the police took it.
Even then, I didn’t want to get the men into trouble.
They were my friends and I thought I was in love with one of them.
But police officers explained to me that I’d been groomed.
As a result of our report, Operation Engage was launched in Lancashire.
It was the first major investigation in the UK into child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs.
In August 2007, two of my abusers were jailed for five years and eight months, with a judge condemning Zulfar Hussain, 46, and Qaiser Naveed, 32, for exploiting vulnerable children who were in social services’ care.
Hussain admitted abducting a child, sexual activity with the same child and supplying the child with ecstasy.
Naveed pleaded guilty to the same offences.
I was so relieved they had been jailed, but was also terrified of retribution.
I was moved to a new foster home, away from the area.
But it felt like a break-up, and I was heartbroken.
I missed them so much and continued to blame myself.
In my early 20s, I found myself trapped in abusive, violent relationships, because it was all I knew.
I couldn’t hold down a job either, because I felt so angry.
I suffered with anxiety and panic attacks.
In 2020, aged 29, I finally began therapy because I was sick of living chaotically.
Slowly, I realised none of it was my fault, and I felt devastated that I’d been failed by the adults I trusted.
I’d been abused by men who were old enough to be my father and grandfather.
With therapy, I learned to channel my feelings in a healthy way.
The following year, I adopted a rottweiler I named Buddy.
I’d always loved animals, but I’d never had my own.
I no longer felt so alone.
I also decided the time was right to seek legal advice.
Last November, after working with Irwin Mitchell solicitors, I received an undisclosed settlement from Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council, after claiming that they failed to protect me.
The council did not admit liability, nor did they apologise.
They may have given me compensation, but an apology was the thing I most wanted.
I’m now in a happy, healthy relationship, and through TikTok (@drdoolittlethesecond) I’m helping other survivors and urging them not to suffer in silence.
I’ll always live with the impact of the abuse, but I feel I can finally move on with my life.
I’ve adopted two more dogs, and I’m hoping to become a dog trainer in the future.”
