One victim of the men found guilty of systematically abusing girls in Bristol described how she was scooped up by members of a drugs gang within hours of being placed alone at a flat in the city by a social services department.
The girl, who was 16 when she arrived and can only be identified as Victim A, did not know the city or anyone who lived there and came to feel protected by members of the gang. She said: “I went out on my own, it was like my second day. I was quite stressed and these guys were trying to chat to me. I just turned round to them and was like: ‘Oh, can you get any weed?’”
Realising that she was alone and vulnerable, gang members swiftly moved into her flat. They used it as a base for dealing drugs and some paid her for sex; at least one – Idleh Osman (known by his street name Sniper) acted as her pimp and brought strangers to her flat. “I had no control over who came to the house,” she said. There were, she said, “no condoms, no rules”. “If they wanted to put one on they can.”
Victim A sometimes objected but more often simply gave in. She said: “Sometimes I couldn’t even be bothered to fight or argue because it’s hard to tell them at the end of the day ‘No I don’t want to do it’. But half the time I did it because obviously it was just being close to someone. Half the time I didn’t really want it for the money; I just wanted someone to be there even though I know they were using me for sex and that.”
Idleh Osman and Victim A charged £60 for full sex and £30 for oral sex. “I needed money,” said Victim A. “£60 was a lot of money for me.”
Victim A developed a bond with one man in particular, Arafat Osman (who was known by the street name Left Eye). He told her he had to deal drugs from her home to “provide for us”. When his brother, Abdulahi Aden (known as Trigger), was released from prison for drug offences, she had sex with both at the same time. Victim A said: “They were just like: ‘Oh, you deserve a medal’ and everything. I felt happy cause I made Left Eye happy. I felt like I had done some good.”
Her social worker compared her to a kidnap victim who falls for the kidnappers. She said: “[Victim A] gravitates to more dangerous people in society. She feels they can protect her. She feels unprotected by the rest of us.”
