Warning: This story contains details of sexual violence
Survivors of an Oxford grooming gang say they still see men who sexually abused them, and who have not been brought to justice, walking around the city.
“A shop, a petrol station, a restaurant – everywhere you can imagine – you’ll see a man that’s done something,” one survivor, Sarah, tells BBC Panorama.
Sarah and two other survivors believe “hundreds” of perpetrators are still free. An ex-police detective who led the initial investigation into grooming gangs in Oxford agrees.
It is the first time that Sarah (whose name we have changed) and one of the other women have spoken out publicly about what they were subjected to.
Sarah says she was sexually abused and plied with heroin from the age of 11. More than two decades later, three men were found guilty of abusing her after she testified against them in court. They were jailed for between five and 24 years in 2020.
But it was too little, too late for Sarah, who has battled drug addiction for most her life and has spent time in jail.
“I think they should stay in there forever, because obviously they’ve taken my life,” she says.
Chloe, another survivor whose name we have changed, says she also sees some of her abusers in her local area. Like many survivors, she chose not to go through a police investigation.
“It’s difficult because this is where I live, it’s where I grew up. There is a few of them that I’ve seen a few times, even just in the supermarket, driving around,” she explains.
She feels “sick, cold” when she sees them, she says.