GROWING up, Ellie Reynolds was a happy child with a stable homelife and a passion for horses.
But at 13, she was picked up off the streets and pushed into the footwell of a car by men who took her to dingy houses with grubby bedsheets on the windows and filthy mattresses on the floor.
Ellie Reynolds was groomed as a teenager by a gang in Barrow, Cumbria[/caption]
Over the next five years the teenager, from Barrow-in-Furness, was plied with drugs and booze and subjected to violent rape, sexual assaults and sinister threats, which included chopping off her fingers and cutting her tongue out if she told anyone what was going on.
Last month, Ellie watched in court as one of the men who had abused her was jailed for life for a string of unrelated sex offences.
Shaha Joman Miah, known as Sarge, was one of three brothers jailed for a total of 54 years for abusing girls aged six to 15-years-old in Leeds and Barrow.
The court heard Miah and two of his brothers, who have 10 siblings, ran a family-owned takeaway which became a ‘hub of criminality’ with girls being picked up in cars still wearing their school uniforms.
Miah might have been taken off the streets but Ellie is still awaiting her justice.
In tears, she told The Sun: “Seeing him jailed was a bittersweet moment.
“I am relieved he can’t hurt anyone else but I still want him prosecuted over what he did to me.
“When I walked into court he didn’t look the same. He’d aged and I hope that’s because the guilt and the stress has eaten him up.
“He couldn’t even look me in the eye and started crying when the judge sentenced him. I know other girls who said they were abused by Sarge and they haven’t had justice either.
“It’s like the Rochdale grooming scandal. Everyone knows about the main three girls because a TV show was made about them, but there are so many others out there.”
The Sun can reveal that at least one other woman has contacted the police to allege abuse by Joman Miah but there may be many more victims yet to report him.
One insider told us how other girls in the Barrow area were also targeted by the gang.
They told us: “This is systematic grooming on a massive scale.
Shaha ‘Sarge’ Joman Miah, 38, was given a life sentence[/caption]
Shaha Amran Miah was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years at Preston Crown Court[/caption]
Shaha Alman Miah was jailed for 10 years with an extended four years on licence after release[/caption]
“The victims have been failed by the authorities at every turn. Many are still too scared to go to the police, others have tried but been threatened while some are known to social services, but still nothing has been done.”
Preston Crown Court heard how “predatory and paedophilic” brothers Shaha Amran Miah, 49, Shaha Alman Miah, 47, and Shaha Joman Miah ran a 14-year-campaign of grooming and sexual abuse in “plain sight” between 1996 and 2010.
Joman and Amran, both of Leeds, were jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years, for a combined 56 offences – 40 of which were committed by Joman.
Their perversions began with the abuse of two girls, aged six and seven, in Leeds in 1996 which continued for several years before they turned their attention to Barrow.
Their brother Alman, of Doncaster, was given 10 years with an extended four years on licence after release for three offences.
Eleven jurors who found the men guilty at the initial trial last October returned to court to see the trio sentenced.
I was so drugged half the time, there could have been more
Ellie
Joman plied a 14-year-old victim with booze and cigarettes and showered her with gifts, while Alman started a ‘relationship’ with a 15-year-old who was raped by his brother, Amran.
When the older girl threatened to tell police she was told she “would be dead” if she blew the whistle and that her family would face a backlash with “cars full of people” coming to Barrow.
Their harrowing stories were all too familiar to Ellie who says she first met Joman, who she knew as ‘Sarge’, through a friend’s partner.
She said: “I used to go to this person’s house and he’d look at me a bit oddly sometimes, but I was a young kid and didn’t think anymore of it.”
Just weeks later Ellie, then 13, was on her way to meet a friend when Joman took her off the street, pushing her into the footwell of his car before forcing her to take drugs and driving to a dingy flat where he raped her for the first time.
Ellie and her father Ian feel let down by the authorities[/caption]
Ellie’s parents Kara and Ian were left perplexed by their daughter’s sudden change in behaviour[/caption]
Shockingly, police tried to charge Ellie, pictured here around age 13, with blackmail[/caption]
She said: “I didn’t know what to do.
“There were two other men in the car and he got me to swallow a drug and that’s when it all started.
“When I got home I wanted to tell my mum and dad but I couldn’t. I was so confused about what had happened to me.”
That day would set a horrific pattern which Ellie says went on to involve three men, although she says: “I was so drugged half the time, there could have been more.”
Living in terror
Joman regularly snatched Ellie from the roadside and she was continually going missing from home – sometimes for four days at a time.
Her parents Ian, 50, an infrastructure engineer, and Kara, 56, had no idea why their previously horse-loving, hard-studying daughter was vanishing for days, refusing to talk to them and exploding with seemingly no reason.
If I threatened to tell anyone, Sarge would tell me he’d rip my tongue out or chop off my fingers
Ellie
Desperate for help, they begged for involvement from youth workers and the NHS mental health services but couldn’t get to the bottom of what was going on.
Ian said: “We knew something was deeply wrong and we tried stopping her from going out, even locking her in her room but nothing worked.
“At one point Kara even suggested we get her sectioned.”
Ellie, meanwhile, was living in abject terror.
She said: “If I threatened to tell anyone, Sarge would tell me he’d rip my tongue out or chop off my fingers.
“I didn’t doubt he was capable of it because the things he was doing were already so vile. I’d be tied up, raped, abused and one of the men had this scary big dog that he’d sometimes set on me if I stepped out of line.”
Ellie, pictured aged eight, tells The Sun how she had a picture-perfect upbringing and was doing well at school before the abuse started[/caption]
Ellie’s father Ian begged the authorities for help[/caption]
Ellie had her childhood stolen[/caption]
In 2018, a broken Ellie told Joman’s ex girlfriend about the abuse – and she went to the police.
It was then everything clicked into place for Ian and Kara and Ellie lodged a complaint with Cumbria Police.
But in a shocking turn of events, instead of protecting Ellie, cops in Cumbria charged her with blackmail – a charge that was later dropped for lack of evidence.
Ian said: “When we found out Ellie was being groomed I felt sick.
“I was so angry I wanted to kill those involved but we put our trust in the police, only to be let down.
“The narrative from the authorities is that every child who is groomed comes from a broken home or chaotic background, but it’s far from the truth. They are labelled trouble because it makes it easier for police not to investigate the men involved.”
Stolen innocence
Ellie, now 24, admits her upbringing was “picture perfect” and her story has striking similarly to that of Scarlett West, who was trafficked around Yorkshire after being targeted by a mainly Pakistani-Muslim gang.
Both girls had stable home lives, owned their own horses and were flying at school before their innocence was stolen by sick perverts.
Grooming gang faker
ELLIE’S hometown of Barrow-in-Furness was at the centre of a shocking fake grooming gang scandal in 2020.
As genuine victims like Ellie fought for justice, 19-year-old Eleanor Williams posted social media pictures of horrific injuries she claimed were caused by an Asian grooming gang.
The teenager said she had been trafficked around the north of England, drugged, beaten and threatened.
Her posts quickly went viral and Williams told cops she had also been taken to Amsterdam where she was forced to work in a brothel and sold at a slave auction.
Her case was hijacked by far-right activist Tommy Robinson who organised a protest in the town.
But the whole tale was exposed as a lie after a jury found the bruises seen by thousands of Facebook users were caused by Williams’ own hand after she attacked herself with a hammer.
In March 2023, Williams, 22, was jailed for eight and a half years for perverting the course of justice.
Scarlett, now 20, was just 14 when she was first attacked and last month waived her anonymity so her dad Marlon could tell her story to The Sun.
Scarlett, of Hyde, Greater Manchester, was also arrested by cops and charged with drug offences after they raided a house she was being held captive in.
When Ellie gave her statement to police in March 2018, she thought her abusers would be picked up and charged within hours.
The next day cop cars surrounded her house to charge her with blackmail.
It was three years before the charges were finally dropped at Preston Crown Court after the prosecution failed to present any evidence against her.
Like Ellie, Scarlett had a stable upbringing[/caption]
Scarlett’s father, Marlon, also wants to see a national inquiry[/caption]
Paperwork submitted to the court, and seen by The Sun, shows a psychiatric report which acknowledges Ellie was the “victim of systemic, persistent and prolonged abuse at the hands of an organised criminal gang operating in Barrow between the ages of 13 and 17”.
Ellie, now a mother-of-two, wants her case reopened and backs the growing calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs across the UK.
She said: “They took away my childhood but they won’t take away my future.
“It was my children who saved me and one day I’ll have grandchildren and I want them to live in a world free of gangs like this. That’s why I want to have my voice heard – and those of all the other grooming victims should be heard too.”
The Crown Prosecution Service said it reviewed the evidence in Ellie’s case but “concluded there was not a realistic prospect of securing a conviction”.
A spokesperson said: “We know our service to victims and complainants hasn’t always been good enough, which is why we’ve recruited new Victim Liaison Officers to give victims a single point of contact and rolled out trauma-informed training for all CPS staff working with victims of rape and serious sexual assault.
“Our thoughts remain with the victims of these terrible crimes, and we would urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to report it, so that justice can be served.”
What is grooming and where to get help?
What is grooming?
According to the Metropolitan Police, “Grooming is when a person builds a relationship with a child, young person or an adult who’s at risk so they can abuse them and manipulate them into doing things.
“The abuse is usually sexual or financial, but it can also include other illegal acts.”
Types of grooming
Grooming can take place online or in person and it can happen over a short or long period of time – from days to years.
- Online and through social media
- In person
Signs of grooming
- Are they being secretive about how they’re spending their time?
- Do they have an older boyfriend or girlfriend?
- Do they have money or new things like clothes and mobile phones that they can’t or won’t explain?
- Are they drinking or taking drugs?
- Are they spending more or less time than usual online or on their devices?
- Do they seem upset or withdrawn?
- Are they using sexual language you wouldn’t expect them to know?
- Are they spending more time away from home or going missing for periods of time?
A person won’t know they’re being groomed, they will trust their abuser who is giving them lots of attention and gifts. Also, their groomer may have warned them not to talk to anyone about it.
How to get help and support
Grooming is an offence. If you suspect a person is being groomed, even if you’re not sure, please tell someone.
Is someone about to be attacked or hurt? Is a crime taking place right now? If yes, call 999 and ask for the police.
If it isn’t an emergency you can report grooming to the police on 101.
Charities and agencies:
A spokesperson for Cumbria Police said: “Cumbria Constabulary thoroughly investigated each allegation reported by an individual in the Barrow area in 2018.
“Following all evidential opportunities being explored and enquiries conducted, a comprehensive case was prepared and presented to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision. The CPS decided not to authorise charges in relation to the case prepared.
“Prior to and throughout the investigation, the individual was supported as a victim and was provided appropriate support and safeguarding in partnership with trusted agencies.
“Incidents of exploitation and sexual abuse occur in every community. We can assure the public that we are committed to doing everything in our power to stop such abuse before it occurs and bring perpetrators to justice when abuse has taken place – as evidenced in the case against Shaha Amran Miah, Shaha Alman Miah, and Shaha Joman Miah.
“The conviction against the Miah brothers highlights the Constabulary’s commitment to investigating reports of abuse, identifying and pursuing offenders, and supporting victims of crime.
“This was a complex case involving a number of victims, many witnesses and offending which spread across different regions over a significant period of time. The work of our detectives, to obtain evidence and build a case in which a jury subsequently found the three men guilty, was significant.
“Anyone who has suffered physical or sexual abuse – whether recent or non-recent – is encouraged to pick up the phone and contact police today. You will be supported, and your reports will be treated sensitively and investigated thoroughly by highly-trained detectives.”
Ellie, now a mother-of-two, wants to see her case reopened[/caption]
