Sexually exploited North East teenager speaks out

A North East teenager has spoken out after she felt punished for being sexually exploited by an older man.

Savannah* said she would “probably be dead” without the support she received from Barnardo’s since the abuse. The teen experienced “dark moments” after she was sexually exploited and then taken out of her mum’s care.

It all started when she was 15 years old. Savannah had months of conversations with Ben*, a boy she believed to be her age. They grew close and eventually, she was coerced into sharing explicit photographs of herself.

The teen even met Ben and had no reason to think anything suspicious was going on. However, weeks later, when they saw each other again, Ben broke down into tears and revealed that it actually an older man Savannah had been speaking and sending photos to.

It turned out that Ben was also being exploited – his social media accounts were being controlled by an older man who was using them to talk to Savannah. He was also being forced to sell drugs.

When Savannah found out, she started speaking to the older man directly. She said: “When you’re fifteen, getting that attention from someone older seems amazing. By this point, we had been speaking for months and everything he was saying was just what I wanted to hear.”

She went on to add: “Everyone can remember their first ‘crush’ or first love, and for me this felt no different at the time. He knew just what to say to make me believe he truly cared for me and wanted to be together.”

He lured her in with promises of a relationship and financial security. She added: “I had been let down my whole life – broken promise after broken promise from my dad. It makes you desperate for that love and affection, particularly from someone older. Exploiters know that, and they make you feel like you’re the only person that matters to them.”

However, after the pair had sex, everything was different. Savannah said: “Straight after that, he changed completely. As soon as we had sex, he said he just wanted to be friends – when that upset me, he told me to leave and threatened me never to tell anyone. Some of the threats he made were horrific.”

Savannah didn’t tell anyone of her ordeal. However, the older man was uncovered after he was arrested and charged for a different crime but explicit photos of Savannah were found on his phone.

The teen then blamed herself for “falling for” the exploitative tactics of the man who groomed her. However, things were about to get even worse when a social services referral raised concerns that her mum was aware of the exploitation.

Despite their protests that this was not the case, Savannah and her sibling were taken out of her mum’s care. Savannah said: “When social workers came round, I sobbed like a baby and begged them not to take me from my mum.

“As if what I hadn’t already been through wasn’t bad enough – I was ripped from my mum, the only stability I’d ever had. I was made to feel like my actions had broken my family apart and ruined everyone’s lives – rather than feeling like I was a victim of exploitation.”

Savannah’s phone was taken from her and she was placed on a nightly curfew at a relative’s house despite her exploiter already being in jail. The plans were put in place to keep her safe, but left the teen feeling as if she was under house arrest, cut off from friends, family and the outside world.

She added: “I had the feeling that my poor little sibling was ripped away from their mum because of my actions. I felt like I had done something awful, not that something awful had happened to me.

“There were a lot of times where you’re sat in a dark room and it’s a split decision whether you stay to fight on another day or you don’t. Some of those darkest times, I could have easily killed myself, definitely. It’s sad to think about the amount of people who don’t have that support around them or don’t have that fight to carry on, because this will be happening all the time.”

However, things started looking up for Savannah when she was introduced to Amy* from Barnardo’s. She said: “It was different with Amy, she wasn’t patronising and she told me she would be there for as long as I needed. She spoke to me on my level and we had a good relationship from the start.”

Amy worked to ensure that Savannah was regarded as a victim by professionals and was able to attend the social care meetings regarding her case. This led to Savannah getting her phone back, more freedom to go out and increased contact with her mum – all of which significantly improved her mental health.

Two years on from her ordeal, Savannah said she is “thriving” and is re-sitting her GCSE exams. She added: “During those dark moments, the only people I had in my corner were my mum, my nan and Barnardo’s.”

She dreams of working with young people, and has already got a role with a Barnardo’s service. Savannah added: “I’m not joking when I say that, were it not for Barnardo’s, I would still be in that deep, dark hole. I would probably be dead is the reality of it.

“It’s just so sad to think of all the other children who are made to feel the same way and don’t have anyone there fighting their corner.”

On Tuesday, Barnardo’s launched its Safe Summer campaign to call on the Government to ringfence spending on specialist services to tackle child sexual exploitation. There are currently less than 50 specialist child sexual or criminal exploitation services commissioned by local authorities in the UK.

Director of Barnardo’s North Nadine Good said: “In these terribly difficult circumstances, we want everyone to remember that people in situations like Savannah’s are children who have been exploited by people older than them.

“Too often, these children and young people are treated by professionals as if they are partially to blame for their own exploitation, as if they should have made another choice which would have kept themselves safe. No. They are children and shouldn’t be expected to understand the gravity and consequences of their decisions in the same way as an adult can.

“That’s why it is so vital that there are specialist services to support young victims of sexual and criminal exploitation – they need an advocate to amplify their voice and speak up on their behalf.”

Names changed to protect identities