EXCLUSIVE: After MyLondon revealed a three-year grooming gang probe involving a Hounslow child, a former children’s home worker has stepped forward to say girls she worked with were allegedly exploited in hotels
‘Hounslow Girls Abused In Hotels By Rich Older Men’
Children were sexually abused by ‘rich older men’ in a sick exploitation ring operating out of hotels in Hounslow, a former children’s home worker has claimed. Warda Mohamed, a key worker for care placements in the borough between 2015 and 2021, said she heard directly from 16-year-old girls who were allegedly taken to hotels by gangs to be preyed upon by predators of all ages.
Identifying a specific road in Hounslow, which we have chosen not to name, Ms Mohamed claimed girls in care returned home “feeling violated and dirty” after attending alcohol-fuelled “parties” and “motives” – something she likened to an “orgy”, where the victims believed they were “in love” or “[thought] they were consenting”.
Speaking to MyLondon about the disclosures she claims were made to her, Ms Mohamed said: “There were little girls that are on all sorts of substances, who are being told to do things with the boys there, who are assaulted in these places, and who are used as a tactic to recruit other boys to join a gang.
“I think the location is sinister for that reason because the girls would say it wasn’t all young people, there are some people that have money that come to these places. So I truly suspect that they are being taken there so that they can have sex with rich international businessmen.”
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Ms Mohamed’s claims are backed up by a 2017 Hounslow Council CSE report that identified hotels in the borough as “places of concerns” for the Met Police-led Multi-Agency Sexual Exploitation (MASE) panel in the same period, plus the Council’s ‘Drug Supply and Organised Crime Plan 2019 – 2021’ which mentions “the use of local hotels” for drugs supply and sexual exploitation.
In 2015, Hounslow’s assistant director for children’s safeguarding and specialist services, also wrote an article for the Local Government Chronicle, stating: “A worker in a local hotel called the police to report suspicious behaviour. This led to two victims of exploitation being identified to our MASE panel, and they are now receiving support to help them to break ties with their abusers.”
A 2021 University of Nottingham Right’s Lab paper referred to evidence from youth workers who described the phenomenon of so-called ‘gift girls’ – children who are ‘passed around’ by a gang as a reward – and organised crime-run ‘pop-up brothels’ where young girls are sold for abuse.
The same report found A&Es in southern England were seeing a rise in young males as victims of rape in a gang context – a form of ritualistic humiliation used for initiation.
The use of London hotels by gangs also appeared in evidence given to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), when a witness statement from the Children’s Society about Tower Hamlets described “young girls being taken to hotels and house parties for the purpose of sexual exploitation”.
Recalling how the girls acted after the alleged abuse, Ms Mohamed said: “Some of them think they’re doing something good. They think they’re earning money. They’re being told that they’re in love or whatever they have been told, they think they’re consenting to it. But they come home feeling violated and dirty.”
‘Nothing was really done’
While working in placements in Hounslow, Ms Mohamed said she followed a procedure, detailed in a policy document seen by MyLondon, by calling Hounslow Council’s Emergency Duty Team, but claimed “nothing was really done”.
Hounslow Council said it could find no record of Ms Mohamed raising concerns. When asked to check the EDT records, the council said Ms Mohamed would need to provide specific identifying details of the girls involved to search for a case.
Ms Mohamed also claimed she raised concerns at an Ealing Safer Neighbourhood Board in around 2018, when she claims a police officer got “really defensive” and said the placements get paid so much money they should be able to handle it better. The Met Police were asked about this directly, but did not address it in their comment.
Ms Mohamed said the disclosures about hotels were disturbing because bookings should usually be made by an adult. She also claimed some girls were “too scared” of retribution to disclose their exact locations. Asked why she left her role in the care placements, Ms Mohamed said: “I left because I realised this is beyond me.”
She has since set up her own non-profit, Lasting Support Foundation CIC, offering therapeutic assistance to London kids, as well as advising the Metropolitan Police and consulting for the Home Office.
‘They are treated like hot potatoes’
In an interview with MyLondon at the Central London office of The Vavengers, a violence against women and girls charity, Ms Mohamed also claimed some children’s homes take a “profit over care” approach, meaning staff who go “the extra mile” to get information from vulnerable youngsters are “ostracised”.
She claimed placements can get nervous when workers make disclosures because it means involving social services and opening up investigations, adding that some care providers treat children “like hot potatoes” by cancelling placements when issues are raised.
Recalling her own time as a frontline worker, she said: “I remember they would hire someone and they’ll say, ‘I’ve got relevant experience’. What is your experience? ‘I worked in prisons’. These are not criminals. These are vulnerable children.”
Ms Mohamed said the system can feel like the burden of proof is “always put on the child”, and outcomes can be determined more by the provider’s relationship with the local authority, rather than the child’s evidence.
“I get a bit emotional when I think about it because some of these children are so talented and they’re lovely and they have skills and they have such amazing personalities and they have so much potential but because they’ve been written off and society treats them like a problem that they have to deal with,” added Ms Mohamed.
“We pay into the state thinking that it wouldn’t happen to children like this, but actually the state of the care system traumatises them and exposes them and they come out more damaged than they went in.”
‘It’s like an open secret’
Ms Mohamed, 38, who grew up in neighbouring Ealing and works with children from across West London, also described a disturbing phenomenon of 14 to 15-year-old girls having boyfriends in their 20s and 30s when she was at school in the 2000s.
“There always used to be guys driving outside the school in cars trying to pick up little girls,” she recalled. “You’d be very surprised how normalized it was for us to have relationships with guys that have cars, that were older, and see that as a cool thing and it just be overlooked.
“I think I can relate to what these girls are talking about when they talk about how they have had their needs met by these people. These groomers. They don’t just come on all aggressive.
“They make them feel seen. They’re there to listen to them. Children in care are so isolated. So I understand the appeal of wanting to be in a relationship with an older man and I could see how that could lead, but the fact that it’s so systematic now, and it’s much more organised, and it is like an open secret.”
Asked why these ‘older boyfriends’ were not viewed as paedophiles, Ms Mohamed said: “I think the disconnect is that the groomers have become very good at picking their targets. The most insecure, the one that doesn’t seem to have anyone looking out for her.”
‘No-one can deny it’
Scroll above to see all 12 of Baroness Louise Casey’s recommendations.
Ms Mohamed supports Baroness Louise Casey’s recommendation to make sexual activity with a 13 to 15-year-old statutory rape, bringing it in line with the law for under-13s. She also believes data collection needs to improve, so the scale of the problem can be known.
“If the evidence is not being recorded properly, then it’s easy to deny and be pushed to the side,” she said, “If [Casey’s] 12 recommendations are taken seriously, that could be the end to that problem, and the true reality will be known and no-one can deny it.”
While Ms Mohamed believes the Mayor of London’s comment about there being ‘no reports and no indication’ of grooming gangs in London are a result of a lack of data and evidence from police, she also takes issue with the terminology used.
“I think the problem with ‘grooming gangs’ is it implies the motivation is purely sexual. I’ve never known a case where it’s purely for sexual gratification. It’s for financial gain. It’s embedded with drug trafficking and other types of fraud and all this sort of stuff. All money motivated. The root of all evil comes down to money,” she added.
‘The ‘single child’ comment doesn’t make the problem seem less’
In September, MyLondon published a story about a three-year police investigation into an alleged grooming gang, after obtaining information from Hounslow Council through FOI laws. When we went to the council for comment, it took three days, 13 emails, 14 phone calls, and attending the monthly borough meeting in person to get answers.
Asked about council Leader Shantanu Rajawat’s assurance that the case ‘wasn’t just Hounslow, it was multi-borough’, together with a Hounslow press office statement describing ‘a single Hounslow child’, Ms Mohamed shared her disappointment.
“I think saying it’s not just a Hounslow issue, it’s a cross-border issue, is irrelevant. It’s a national problem. Yes, we know that. But that doesn’t take away from what’s happening in Hounslow,” she added.
“I also think the single child comment doesn’t make the problem seem less. A single child is bad enough. We all know the truth, and it’s not a single child.”
A 2014 children’s services inspection by Ofsted found Hounslow Council had work to do in providing a joined-up multi-agency response to reports of child sexual exploitation (CSE). Though this improved by a 2018 inspection, Ofsted highlighted inconsistent recording by social workers of reasons children had gone missing, limiting the service’s ability to gather intelligence and spot patterns.
A 2020 Ofsted inspection also found targeted assessments to evaluate the CSE risk of a child were not routinely being completed with the help of that child. Hounslow Council say Ofsted reports in the last eight years have found no systematic failures to protect children.
‘The picture in London is more varied’
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “We understand the very real concern the public have around so-called grooming gangs and treat all allegations of sexual offences and exploitation extremely seriously.
“Our data shows the group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation picture in London is more varied than in other parts of the country and does not neatly align with patterns of methodology, ethnicity or nationality seen elsewhere and reported on extensively.
“We are utterly committed to protecting vulnerable children and bringing those responsible to justice. There is still much work to be done, including encouraging reporting of offences so we have the fullest possible picture, but we have made significant improvements in the past decade to enable us to do that effectively.”
Hounslow ‘takes concerns about child exploitation seriously’
In Hounslow Council’s first statement, a spokesperson said: “London Borough of Hounslow (LBH) works diligently with its partners to ensure children in the borough are kept safe. Cases presented to the Council are reviewed thoroughly on a case-by-case basis and the Council acts quickly and diligently whenever concerns are brought to our attention.
“While we can find no record of any allegations, concerns or evidence being raised with the Council by Ms Mohamed or her organisation, we invite her to contact the Safeguarding Children Partnership Service Manager at [email protected] to discuss her concerns so that we can undertake the proper investigations.
“Without this, there is currently no evidence we have been made aware of that the Council has ‘failed children in our care’ that were subject to exploitation.”
In a second statement, after we informed the council Ms Mohamed followed a policy that required her to call the EDT, a Hounslow Council spokesperson said: “The London Borough of Hounslow has a robust process in place for children in its care with measures and systems in place to raise any concerns for child safety. It is a statutory requirement (not policy) that every child in care is automatically allocated a Social Worker and any safeguarding concerns are reported to them in the first instance.
“With regards to the report(s) made by Ms Mohamed to the EDT, the council requires specific details including names, dates of birth, case reference numbers, dates and times of report to confirm whether any such reports have been made.
“Operation Amethyst is a proactive, preventive Police operation, linked to Operation Makesafe. It is not an independent investigative operation and aims to test the hotel’s awareness of and response to concerns of Child Sexual Exploitation as part of the Police’s nationwide initiative.
“The council continues to support Operation Makesafe and Operation Amethyst as it takes concerns about child exploitation seriously and is using preventive approaches in nationally recognised areas of risk.
“The outcome of regular inspections from Ofsted during the last eight years found no systemic failures to protect children including those who have been exploited.
“Since this matter was raised with the council, Ms Mohamed has not contacted us. Therefore, we strongly urge Ms Mohamed to contact us with any specific concerns about a child via the Service Manager for the Hounslow Safeguarding Children Partnership at [email protected] to ensure we can take steps to protect them.”
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