Celebrities

Grooming gang survivor reveals heartbreak of being arrested while her abuser walked free

Published on June 17, 2025

A woman who survived grooming and abuse as a teenager has spoken out on Good Morning Britain, describing the harrowing moment she was arrested at her abuser’s home while he faced no consequences. Appearing on the program on June 16, Jade told viewers through tears, “I got arrested from a 60-year-old man’s house. They didn’t arrest him, they arrested me.”

Her heartbreaking story is part of a wider pattern that many survivors say highlights years of failure by the authorities to protect vulnerable girls. Jade, who has bravely waived her right to anonymity, sat alongside another survivor, Chantelle, as they spoke about being punished instead of supported, reported the Mirror.

“I am still fighting for justice six years later,” Chantelle said, sharing how the battle doesn’t end when the abuse stops — it’s a constant fight to be heard, believed, and treated fairly.

Jade’s story has already been featured in the Channel 4 documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, which followed five women whose lives were shattered by grooming gangs. Many of the gangs were made up of predominantly British-Pakistani men, something the women say was swept under the rug by institutions more concerned with political correctness than protecting children.

Jade opened up about her troubled home life, explaining how after moving in with her father, who she described as a heroin addict, she was taken to parties by his drug dealers. There, she was given alcohol, made to feel wanted, and slowly drawn into a terrifying world of control and abuse.

She shared with journalist Anna Hall hundreds of text messages she received in those years — some that started with innocent-seeming invites to parties, and others that quickly turned to violent, coercive demands for sex. “I have gone home with black eyes, ran up the road naked to try and get away and they have picked me up,” she said.

When asked how many men had abused her, Jade said quietly, “It is in the hundreds, but I try not to go there.”

Despite being a child at the time, Jade found herself criminalised. In 2009, she was put under a police protection warning after repeatedly going missing — but just weeks later, she was arrested again after attending another party. Although she was underage, she was charged and convicted of inciting sexual activity on a minor, served 14 months behind bars, and to this day remains on the sex offenders’ register. The men who abused her? Still free.

Jade told GMB that her conviction now affects every part of her life. She can’t go on school trips with her children, can’t volunteer at their schools, and carries the label of a sex offender — while those who ruined her childhood face no charges.

Her story echoes the experiences of girls in towns like Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford, where survivors have spent years being ignored or blamed.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now ordered a statutory inquiry into the national grooming scandal, with the National Crime Agency reviewing over 800 reopened cases. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The vulnerable young girls who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice.”

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