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One victim of the Telford paedophiles gave a chilling account of her ordeal at the hands of child sex gangs who plagued the town.

The woman, now in her 30s, bravely spoke out as she backed calls for an independent inquiry into the abuse.

She said: “I was routinely abused by scores of men throughout most of my teenage years and I was forced to sleep with several men a night to make money for an older Pakistani ‘courier’.

“He sold me to men from a range of nationalities – a large proportion of whom were takeaway workers.

(Image: Roland Leon)

“One night I was raped by eight men in quick succession.

“Like many victims, I was lured into the ring of abuse by one of my peers, who gave my phone number to older men in his community.

“As the abuse worsened, I was forced to have several abortions after falling pregnant to the paedophiles who had raped me.

“The attacks became so unbearable that I attempted suicide before moving away from Telford to escape my abusers. I didn’t have a childhood because they stole it.

(Image: Roland Leon)

“At school, I probably appeared like a normal teenager but my life was far from normal.

“I tried to make myself numb to what was happening to me but some of the rapes were just so horrific, I couldn’t switch off.

“I tried to end my own life because things were so bad I didn’t want to be here any more.

(Image: Sam Bagnall)

“It felt like there was no way out for me, or any of the others. None of us dared protest because we’d be beaten to a pulp and our abusers would threaten our families, or say they’d tell our parents we were prostitutes.

“And we believed we were prostitutes.

“We didn’t realise we were victims of child sexual exploitation because we had been so brainwashed. It breaks my heart

to think of another girl going through what I did.

“That’s why we need a proper inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford.”