News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Little Sabah Kaiser was in agony as she stirred from her sleep, and totally bewildered by what had just happened in her family’s “House of Horrors”.

She was nine and had been raped for the first time by an older relative after being taken to sleep in his marital bed.

The physical pain was bad enough. But her mental turmoil was just ­beginning. For Sabah’s ordeal would last another ­horrifying eight years.

Her abuser, who first molested her when she was seven, was part of a paedophile ring which operated from her outwardly respectable family home.

Her cries for help were ignored at every turn – by family, social services and police. She was eventually sent to a counsellor but says even he abused her.

Sabah – whose ordeal was acknowledged by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority – said: “A paedophile is a paedophile. Abuse doesn’t consider skin colour, but Asian communities are stuck in the dark ages over this.

“Because this is a sexual crime, the blame sits firmly with the woman. It will be the girl that brings the shame to the family, not the perpetrator.”

(Image: Sabah Kaiser/Sunday Mirror)

Sabah’s father died when she was two. Her mother was a devout Muslim who had moved to Bristol from Pakistan, and when Sabah turned to her for help she says her mum was so terrified of the shame abuse accusations would bring on the family that she told her daughter – by then 13 – to drown herself.

The teenager suffered years more abuse before finally breaking free.

Now 43 and a mother of two, she is waiving her anonymity to shatter the stigma around hidden sexual abuse in some British Asian families.

Her haunting memories are revealed in the wake of the Telford abuse scandal – and just two weeks after the Sunday Mirror told how Asian girls in the Shropshire town had been shamed into silence after suffering abuse.

Their stories chimed with Sabah’s own nightmare.

“My community were silent perpetrators, standing in the shadows, knowing what was going on and saying nothing,” she said. “To me, that crime is almost worse.

“They didn’t stop it from happening and when people do that a child is left with a life of pain and the damage takes years to undo. So when we hear about Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, we should ask: What are these perpetrators doing to children at home?”

Sabah was twice taken into care, but her ordeal went on and on.

She said: “Every door was shut in my face and I felt I’d failed. I wish I’d been a different child, I wish I’d been stronger, I wish I’d had the words, even though, as an adult, I now know it wasn’t my fault.”

(Image: Sabah Kaiser/Sunday Mirror)

Sabah, who works as an interpreter in Brighton, told how her happy childhood changed when relatives of her mother moved into their family home after emigrating from her village in Pakistan.

First, a relative insisted she strip naked and massage his legs before he began sexually assaulting her. When he raped her the first time, his wife stripped off the bloodstained sheets in front of confused Sabah. The woman told her: “You have wet the bed. If you tell anyone, you’ll be in big trouble.”

Heartbreakingly, Sabah said: “I didn’t understand why the sheets had turned red. I was obsessed with Superman and I convinced myself it was because I had a superpower which could make things change colour.”

Sabah was abused by four older men. One plied her with alcohol. Another groomed her with pizza.

But what hurt the most was the reaction of their wives, some of whom watched as she was abused.

Once, as she was raped on the kitchen table, an older woman even stood guard so younger children wouldn’t interrupt.

Sabah said: “At the time, I felt nothing. My coping mechanism was shutting it all out. I’d lie in the bath, the water turned red from my blood, imagining I was an angel, flying through the streets of Bristol, away from the house of horrors. If I’d turned up to school with black eyes or broken bones or hungry or dirty, it would have been easier to voice the pain. There was not one person who tried to help.”

Sabah was 13 when she confided in her mum – yet struggled to explain what had happened.

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Sunday Mirror)

She said: “The best way I could describe it was they were doing to me what a husband and wife do in bed. I still didn’t know the words. But she told me to drown myself. I was very angry and hurt. Something really dark started growing inside me.”

A year later, Sabah plucked up the courage to approach a teacher.

But because sex was never discussed in her family she still couldn’t explain precisely what had happened to her.

Then police were alerted by the concerned teacher. But Sabah said: “The police asked questions and one has always stayed in my mind. It hurts my heart and I still think about it. They asked me, ‘Did he have intercourse with you?’ My response was, ‘What is intercourse?’

“I couldn’t even pronounce the word. My mum would change the channel if people were kissing on TV.

“One of them stood up and said, ‘If you don’t know what that word means, it can’t have happened to you’.”

Sabah began bunking off school and she was taken into care after being labelled “beyond parental control”. She said: “The social worker had more sympathy for my mother than for me. No one wanted to get involved in the inner workings of a Pakistani family.”

Sabah was later returned to her family, who hatched a plan to take her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

She added: “In their warped minds, I was running wild and they thought a husband would sort me out.

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Sunday Mirror)

“I was driven to the airport by one of my abusers. He said, ‘Be a good girl and do everything your mother says’. When we arrived, my mum said ‘You are going to get married and you are going to stay here’.

“I said ‘Try to keep me here, but don’t think I am not going to tell everyone and anyone what you have done, and I will bring shame to you’.”

In the end, Sabah developed a ­crippling virus, which her family attributed to black magic, and was rushed back to the UK for treatment. Back in England she was beaten so badly by her mum she fainted.

She was taken into care again and therapy sessions were arranged – but Sabah told how the counsellor abused her too.

Sabah recalled: “He’d say that I let it happen, that I had let my abusers ruin me. Like all abusers, he could sense my vulnerability.” Four other girls said they had been abused by the same man.

The man was charged but the case collapsed because Sabah couldn’t face giving evidence – fearing the court would “see it as my fault, that I had caused all of this”.

Sabah managed to cut all ties with her family years ago.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

She has been awarded £5,000 by the CICA, which ruled abuse took place.

Her mum died of a brain haemorrhage on a Mecca pilgrimage in 2016.

Sabah said: “I love my mum and I know she loved me. I forgave her long before she died. I refuse to allow hatred to dwell in my heart because I am only hurting myself.”

Avon and Somerset Police said: “We encourage any abuse victim to report it. We will listen, no matter who you are or when the assault happened.”

Bristol City Council did not respond to requests for comment.

* Sabah is a speaker for the Truth Project, which was set up so survivors of child abuse could share experiences in a supportive and confidential setting. It is part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.