Groomed By A Gang

"He had raped me, had me beaten up, drained me of every last shred of self-respect. Surely he would leave me alone now? But that evening, as I was eating with my parents, the phone rang. My blood ran cold…" Christina O’Connor is the main prosecution witness from the Huddersfield Grooming scandal which saw 11 men convicted of a staggering 43 offences against her, including 22 counts of rape. Christina will describe how, from being an innocent child in a normal family, she fell into the clutches of a grooming gang whose abuse of children earned them a total of 257 years in prison. Christina’s helpless parents tried desperately to save their 13 year old daughter as she began playing truant, and was lured into sexual activities with complete strangers, in exchange for pizza, vodka and cannabis. After five years of almost daily rape, Christina committed robberies under duress from the grooming gang and was jailed. She made a complaint to police about the abuse, but no action was taken. She sees the prison term as her salvation; from this moment she turned her life around. Two years after her release, her police statement was found at the back of a filing cabinet, and Operation Tendersea, the investigation into the grooming gang was launched. This is the first time Christina has spoken out. She has waived her right to anonymity and wants the world to hear her voice.