Samantha Smith
@SamanthaTaghoy
Immensely proud to launch the #TheyKnew campaign today.
I will never forget how those in power turned a blind eye while I was being groomed and abused.
I was a child begging for help.
Begging for support.
Begging for justice.
There was no greater betrayal than being blamed and vilified by the professionals whose job it was to protect me. Thatโs why I want to challenge the systemic attitudes which allowed my abusers to go unpunished and refused to act when I was at continued risk.
#TheyKnew is more than a campaign: it is a call to action and a demand for accountability. Powerful people and organisations who wilfully ignore the sexual exploitation and abuse of vulnerable children are, in my view, as culpable as the abuser themselves.
We must demand better from those who claim to protect victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
And there must be consequences for inaction, to show that they cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the children still being abused under their noses.
Those in positions of power turned a blind eye for decades while little girls were being raped, tortured, and murdered. And they still are.
They branded them โwhite slagsโ, โchild prostitutesโ, and โpaki shaggersโ. They walked in on victims naked and drugged with 20+ adult men and only arrested the child, they arrested girls for prostitution and handed them back to the same men that were exploiting them, they added the victims to dockets as co-defendants in their own abuse, they downplayed the scale of abuse, they refused to investigate reports, they paid for the taxi rides the girls got raped during, they silenced whistleblowers, they blamed the girls for their own abuse, they tried to block inquiries, and more.
Alongside
@MaggieOliverUK
and others, our company Action for Accountability will be investigating the institutions, officials and organisations that were responsible for protecting little girls like me from abuse โ and securing justice against those who failed.
We are relying solely on the kindness of the public to bring this campaign to action, so please donate and share.
It was the public who forced those in power to address the injustice they swept under the rug for decades. It was the public who listened when the โgreat and the goodโ didnโt want to.
Now, we hope that the public will be the army and infantry behind our campaign.
#TheyKnew โ now, we want them to know justice for their inaction.
(LINK TO DONATE BELOW)