UNITED KINGDOM
HuffPost
By Natasha Hinde
A couple in Telford have gone above and beyond to help survivors of child sexual abuse in the wake of recent allegations that rocked the Shropshire town.
Civil servant Anji Gowans, 45, and security specialist Craig Badley, 45, run Telford Time 4 Change (TT4C) while juggling full-time jobs. They launched the group in mid-March this year with the aim of supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, while raising awareness of exploitation in the community.
Anji and Craig run a Facebook page, which has 8,000 supporters, and say that since its inception TT4C has helped 10 survivors – either by signposting them to police, counselling or other services. Of those they’ve helped, some were recently abused, while for others the ordeal happened 15 or even 30 years ago.
Telford was thrown into the national spotlight in March when The Mirror reported up to 1,000 children were estimated to have fallen victim to child sexual abuse since the 1980s. For some, it came as no surprise – particularly after Operation Chalice, a 2009 police inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford in which seven men were jailed for multiple crimes including sexually abusing teenagers as young as 13.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.