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On her 15th birthday, Sammy Woodhouse says her abuser took her on an armed robbery to the post office as a birthday gift. Woodhouse describes being beaten, raped multiple times, and says he tried to kill her, including dragging her into a fast-driving car, speeding toward a church, and threatening to drive her off a hilltop. She says he raped her afterward and that after years of abuse, she stopped being the “happy, bubbly, confident” child she had been.
Woodhouse says she met Arshad Asim at age 14; he was 24. She says he was known to authorities, including councils/social care and South Yorkshire police, as a dangerous man, and that she was exploited for several years. She describes going missing for days, weeks, or months at a time, staying in hotels and houses, and visiting his home and living with his family. She says she was abused mentally, sexually, and physically, and made pregnant twice—at 14 and again at 15. Woodhouse says she was forced to have a termination at 14, and that she was allowed to keep her second child after police allegedly said they would not prosecute Asim. She says her parents reported the police decision, and that police told them she was making a lifestyle choice.
Woodhouse says she was also coerced to commit crimes, including the post office armed robbery on her 15th birthday. She says she saw police officers buying drugs from him and passing on information. She says she made a no prosecution deal with him after he was allegedly told that if he dropped her off at a petrol station, he would not be prosecuted. Woodhouse says that deal helped expose the “Rotherham child abuse scandal,” and that there were 1,400 children in her hometown. She says the pattern of harm included children being groomed, abused, raped, tortured, trafficked, criminalized, impregnated, blamed, and murdered. She says she named Labour politician Jahangir Akte and PC Hasan Ali. She says that after Asim was told he would be investigated, he was killed “hours later,” and that the scandal came to light through her reporting.
Woodhouse says she approached police in 2012–2013 but was told they had only one piece of evidence: a missing persons report. She says she offered DNA evidence from her son and that she could name police officers involved, but that police refused to take her son’s DNA and allegedly said officers would not come forward for fear of losing their jobs. She says she recorded the police on her mobile phone and then collected files from police, social care, education, and NHS records. She says she provided thousands of pages to journalist Andrew Norfolk at The Times, who published her story in August 2013 under her earlier name, “Jessica.” She says an investigation followed, taken over by the National Crime Agency, described as the biggest investigation in history regarding child abuse. Woodhouse says Asim was later sentenced to 35 years and is still in prison.
Woodhouse says she became an activist and claims she helped expose that family courts allowed rapists contact and custody of children, leading to a successful change in law that still does not protect all children. She says she met MP Rupert Lowe, who raised issues in Parliament and launched an inquiry after government reluctance. She says pressure from public figures such as Elon Musk contributed to a move toward a national inquiry. She says their inquiry was funded by about 20,000 people, with about £600,000–£700,000 secured, and that it involved two weeks of hearings with survivors, families, and whistleblowers. She says the next stage is naming people in Parliament and pursuing private prosecutions, while also starting criminal investigations and legal action against NHS, police, and social care for survivor compensation. She says survivors are being helped to move homes to safety because some are reportedly housed on the same streets as their rapists.
During the discussion, Woodhouse says the harm “goes back” to as early as the 1950s and that perpetrators were mostly “Pakistani Muslim men.” She says she was briefed on “Good Morning Britain” not to mention the race of perpetrators, calling it “legal reasons” and attributing it to Ofcom. She says she nonetheless stated live on air that the majority of perpetrators were Pakistani Muslim men and criticized the briefing. She also says her own child protection meeting included bringing in a professional to ensure no one was racist toward Asim.
Woodhouse links the broader issue to corruption across services, saying education, social care, and policing knew about the perpetrators and victims, including details like car registrations, hotels, and where they conducted activities. She says no professionals have been held to account. She says she met multiple prime ministers and ministers, including David Cameron (2015) and Soella Braverman.
When asked about what prevents action, Woodhouse says people are afraid it will be perceived as racist or Islamophobic and that political parties need “the Muslim vote.” She says she is branded racist and Islamophobic despite stating she was targeted due to her race. She argues communities can be reliant on the state less and that men should “stand up.” She says the report also discusses targeting of Sikh children and that men there mobilized in ways she says were different from her experience.
Woodhouse responds to questions about other societies by urging people to read and spread the inquiry report online. She also makes statements about religion and perpetrators, including that perpetrators allegedly read Quran scripture during abuse. She says when discussing crimes, her claim that most perpetrators are Pakistani Muslim men does not mean “it’s all Pakistani Muslims men,” and argues for open and honest conversations to prevent escalation.