More on grooming
Family of Murdered 'Grooming Gang' Victim Calls for Inquiry
Teenage mother was abused by older Asian men from the age of 11, stabbed and drowned in a canal by her 'boyfriend' in an 'honour killing' - now her family back calls for inquiry into grooming gangs 'cover-up'
The family of a murdered teenage girl who was Britain's first white honour killing victim have condemned a
grooming gangs 'cover-up' and backed calls for a new national inquiry into the scandal.
Young mother Laura Wilson, 17, was
repeatedly stabbed and left to die in a canal by an abuser - after council workers failed to act on reports she was being exploited by older Asian men.
An inquiry held after
her murder by Ashtiaq Ashgar, who could soon be eligible for parole, criticised officials at Rotherham Council after hearing how she was preyed upon by gangs in the town from the age of just 11.
Laura was killed just days after she revealed to families of some of her abusers how she had been in sexual relationships with them - including having a daughter by an older man who was described as a 'mentor' to her murderer.
British-born Ashgar came from a traditional Muslim family who were planning an arranged marriage for their son with someone from
Pakistan and he made Laura keep their relationship a secret.
Now her elder sister Sarah Wilson, 33, has backed calls for a new national inquiry into sex abuse gangs, following on from concerns raised by X owner
Elon Musk.
She spoke out after Prime Minister Sir
Keir Starmer faced criticism for suggesting those raising the alarm were 'amplifying' the 'far right'.
Sarah, another victim of grooming abuse herself, posted on X, formerly
Twitter that anyone involved in cover-ups should be punished and stripped of pensions - while also declaring: 'Our justice system stinks.'
Laura was stabbed more than 40 times by Asghar before he hurled her into the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal in October 2010 and used his blade to hold her under the water.
He was infuriated and on a 'mission to kill' after the young mother told his Muslim family of their relationship which began when she was 15 and he 16, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Ashgar had exchanged a series of texts with married friend and mentor Ishaq Hussain, 22, who had also had an affair with Laura, and who the trial judge described as a man who regarded white girls as 'sexual targets, not human beings'.
In one message, sent a day before he killed Miss Wilson, Asghar wrote: 'I'm gonna send that kuffar (non-Muslim) bitch straight to Hell.'
In another he wrote, 'I need to do a mission', while also talking of buying a pistol and 'making some beans on toast' - a reference to spilling blood used in Four Lions, a satirical film about suicide bombers.
Asghar is serving life in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life, while Mr Hussain was acquitted of murder by joint enterprise after a retrial.
It later emerged that Rotherham County Council's social services were
well aware Laura was at risk and had received information about certain adults suspected of targeting her from the age of 11.
The local authority's Safeguarding Children Board published in June 2012 a serious case review but key passages mentioning how officials knew she was at particular risk from 'Asian men' had been blocked out with black lines.
The council went to court in an attempt to tried to suppress the hidden information after an uncensored copy of the report was leaked to the Times newspaper, before abandoning legal action.
The uncensored report confirmed that Laura, identified as Child S, had dealings with 15 agencies and identified 'numerous missed opportunities' to protect her - while also stating that she eventually became 'almost invisible' to care professionals.
Details hidden included the knowledge that at the age of 13 Laura and a friend had been given alcohol by men at a takeaway who then asked what she would give them in return.
She had also been referred to a child sexual exploitation project just three months after her 11th birthday.
Another censored passage reveals that Laura had been 'mentioned' during a 2009 police inquiry that eventually led to the conviction of five Pakistani men for sex offences against three underage girls.
While the published report mentioned the fact that a friend, who Laura knew when she was 10, was 'thought to have become involved in sexual exploitation', it concealed the succeeding passage which read, 'with particular reference to Asian men'.
In 2007, when Laura was 13, she and her family appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show, in an episode about 'out-of-control children'.
Workers at a child sexual exploitation project later sent a report to social services, but no action was taken to remove her from what became a spiral of sexual abuse.
Laura Wilson, 17, was stabbed and left to die in a canal by an abuser - after council workers failed to act on reports she was being exploited by older Asian men.
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