# @lettheyouthlive on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdRtF3RqH30
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70376025-lettheyouthlive-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/687fa5785e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-14T17:47:01.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** LET THE YOUTH LIVE (@lettheyouthlive) — https://gondola.cc/lettheyouthlive

## Caption

Christine was 13 when she began exchanging messages online with someone she believed was a teenage boy.⁣
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On their first meeting, she discovered he was a grown man 10 years older than herself. He also told her he was involved with gangs and drugs. ⁣
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Over the next few years, he would use Christine to courier drugs, subject her to extreme sexual exploitation, and assault her so violently she feared she might die. ⁣
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Christine is one of four women who have chosen to waive their anonymity and speak publicly in the BBC documentary, Britain’s Forgotten Girls, about how they were targeted by criminals when they were children.⁣
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Their stories differ in detail, but reveal strikingly similar patterns of abuse. All four describe being targeted by boys and older men connected to drugs gangs, manipulated into abusive relationships, then repeatedly sexually exploited.⁣
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The Children’s Commission for England carried out an inquiry in 2025 into the sexual exploitation of children in gangs and groups, and suggested an estimated 16,500 were at risk of abuse from grooming groups or criminal gangs.⁣
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“Some people, including people in senior positions... found it very difficult to accept the real scale of what was going on,” recalls the then-deputy Children’s Commissioner for England, Sue Berelowitz, who headed the inquiry.⁣
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Speaking on behalf of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Acting Chief Constable Rebecca Riggs described the experiences of the women as “devastating” and said she was “deeply sorry” if people felt they were not listened to, believed, or given the response they needed.⁣
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“We did not always get it right, and where we failed victims, we continue to acknowledge it and learn from it,” she told the BBC.⁣
⁣repost • bbcglobalwomen 
Tap the link in bio to read the full story on BBC News. ⁣
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#BBCGlobalWomen #BBCNews #UK

## Stats

- **Views:** 749
- **Likes:** 36
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 12

## Credits

No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post.

## Tags

uk, bbcnews, bbcglobalwomen

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