Karen MacGregor, who has been jailed for 13 years after being convicted of luring girls to her home and pimping them out, had in recent years carved out a reputation as a prominent local campaigner who worked with an MP and Rotherham council to set up a “safe haven” for vulnerable youngsters and their carers.

MacGregor, 58, who had worked in taxi offices in the town, created KinKids, a community support group for kinship carers, in 2013, just as revelations about widespread child sexual abuse in the town started to be properly investigated by the authorities.

She spoke out in support of abused children and boasted that KinKids had helped families affected by the scandal. KinKids’ fundraising shop even sold £1 bracelets with the legend Justice for the 1,400 – a reference to the number of Rotherham children estimated to have been abused.

But that image was far removed from what the jury heard in the grooming and sexual abuse trial. On Wednesday, MacGregor was convicted of four offences against two victims, including forcing a girl into prostitution, false imprisonment and conspiracy to rape. She was sentenced to the jail term on Friday.

KinKids purported to be a support group offering financial, legal and emotional support, face-to-face and via a 24-hour helpline, to carers, like MacGregor herself, who were providing full-time care for the children of relatives or friends who – because of illness, death or prison – were unable to fulfil parental obligations.

MacGregor was an energetic, high-profile campaigner on behalf of abused children, even speaking out at two meetings with local voluntary groups in early 2015 attended by members of the government-appointed team sent in to run Rotherham council in the wake of the scandal, including the lead commissioner, Sir Derek Myers.

“She appeared quite passionate [at the meetings], saying she was working with vulnerable children and families and that they [KinKids] were providing support to people across child sexual abuse issues,” said Shafiq Hussain, of Voluntary Action Rotherham.

The grooming trial, however, heard that MacGregor offered her home to vulnerable young girls then pimped them out so they could earn their keep.

One of her victims described how MacGregor was a motherly figure and a “good listener” who had taken under her wing at a difficult time in her life and treated her like a daughter.

The victim said she was glad to be in the “posh house” after life in a children’s home. However, MacGregor’s home turned into a terrifying “Hansel and Gretel house”.

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One victim told how, within days of arriving, she was plied with vodka and passed out – then woke to find herself being sexually assaulted after being taken upstairs by MacGregor and others.



“You took her childhood from her,” said the judge Sarah Wright. “The effect of the abuse of her has been devastating. Her childhood memories are of pain and abuse. She is unable to trust anyone. She has suffered from eating disorders and anxiety throughout her life.”



MacGregor persuaded Rotherham council, the local Labour MP John Healey and other local organisations to support KinKids. The council agreed to meet KinKids in October 2014 and subsequently gave it a licence to conduct door-to-door fundraising collections and awarded it a £2,000 grant from its community leadership fund.

Healey, the MP for Wentworth and Dearne, helped MacGregor develop KinKids, and quoted her on his website in support of his campaign to get more financial support for kinship carers.

A spokesman for Healey told the Guardian this week that the MP condemned MacGregor’s “evil crimes” and at the time “obviously had no knowledge” of her involvement in the abuse scandal.

Meanwhile, KinKids appeared to be growing, with reports of branches being set up, with MacGregor’s blessing, in Grimsby, Doncaster and Middlesbrough. The group was in the process of applying for a £10,000 lottery grant when MacGregor was charged.

Its rough-and-ready website offers little information about the group other than a mobile phone number, a now extinct Facebook page and a couple of sentimental homilies explaining why the founders had set up the group.

One states: “Karen wanted to be able to offer a safe haven for those in her situation who were also feeling alone. To be able to offer advice and support regarding financial matters and legal matters and most of all to provide people with friendships.”



The site explains how the group worked: “Someone is always on hand to offer advice and an ear if you want to talk, or share your happiness. The children look forward to the meet ups and being allowed to meet other children who no longer livng [sic] with their parents.”

It added: “KinKids will continue to grow in size and love, providing us all with continued care for each and every one.”

When MacGregor was charged, in July 2015, with conspiracy to procure a child for prostitution, false imprisonment, and conspiracy to rape, it appeared she had been hiding in plain sight.

In hindsight however, there were signs that KinKids was not all it seemed. Although it was often referred to as a charity, and had some of the trappings of a charity, it was not registered with the Charity Commission. Although it boasted of a 24-hour “helpline”, this appeared to be MacGregor’s mobile phone number.



Hussain, of Voluntary Action Rotherham, said that at the time MacGregor was making a name for herself as a child abuse activist, very few people in the local charity and voluntary sector had heard of her.

Now he believes her apparently heartfelt activism appears to have been a “cynical ploy” to distance herself from her own abusive activities.

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An official at an established national carers’ charity, who had come into contact with MacGregor as a result of her kinship carer campaigning, told the Guardian the KinKids founder came over as needy and evasive, and made exaggerated boasts about the success of the group but could rarely be pinned down.

“She [MacGregor] made a fanciful claim that 300 people had attended KinKids support group meetings – but I’ve never seen a meeting like that with 300 people present.

“She would call to invite me to these meetings, but the meetings would never actually happen, even when I tried to tie her down to dates and times.”

The charity worker was also surprised by the casualness with which MacGregor boasted to her that KinKids was “happy to give our name to anyone that wants to set up a support group”.

When the KinKids shop closed, MacGregor told the charity worker that this was because someone involved in it had turned out to be “dodgy”.

She added: “It was very hard to unpick her actual involvement in KinKids. It did feel the least stable and the most needy of all the local kinship care groups we came across.”