A victim of Birmingham grooming gangs has revealed how she was trafficked to Morocco - where she was raped by multiple men.
Kate Elysia tells in a new book, called No Way Out, how she was abused by more than 70 men, but only two were ever brought to justice.
Yet her abuse was not confined to the West Midlands, or even the UK.
She reveals how she was once unwittingly trafficked to Morocco by a Birmingham drug dealer, where she was repeatedly raped.
She was told by the criminal that he and some friends were going to collect a van.
In fact, the van was later driven back by the gang to the UK, packed with cocaine
During their stay in Marrakesh, Kate was kept in an apartment.
She recalls how the dealer, the gang and Moroccan contacts returned to the flat after a bawdy night out – with a young girl in tow.
“They all get back in the early hours and they have a young prostitute with them,” says Kate.
“They wake me up with the noise and I come bleary-eyed into the sofa room.
“The prostitute is young, not more than 15. She looks scared.”
Kate tells how she and the girl were forced to kiss each other in front of the men.
“I can’t remember how many times I’m raped that night, or by who,” she says.
“It’s almost daylight when I crawl back to the bedroom and lock the door.
“The next day the young prostitute has gone – I don’t know where."
Kate says she developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after she was first raped by cousins Shayyir Ali and Farooq.
The condition, she believes, explains how she returned to her abusers again and again before finally breaking free.
“The behaviour of someone suffering with PTSD can seem very confusing,” she explains.
“It just doesn’t make rational sense why an abuse victim who escaped one situation of being abused would have irrational urges to go back to the source of that abuse.
“I didn’t want to do what I was doing but I was powerless to stop myself.
“I couldn’t ask for help because I knew no-one would understand why I kept going back."
She added: “It’s hard for me to understand it myself, even after all the counselling and training I’ve had as a mental health nurse.
“So if there are any girls out there who are going through what I went through, I want you to know there is someone who understands – me.“I want to help you; I will help you.
“I made a lot of mistakes because I had no-one to turn to.
"I recognise those mistakes now and I know I can help girls and stop them from making the same mistakes.”
BBC Three Girls
We previously told how Kate was first targeted by the sex attackers while an 18-year-old student.
What followed was years of abuse from men in Birmingham and the West Midlands, abuse which left her addicted to drugs.
But she eventually managed to escape the psychological hold the gangs had on her and helped the police with Operation Chalice, a ground-breaking investigation into Asian grooming gangs.
The phenomenon of grooming by gangs has been investigated in Rochdale, Rotherham and, most recently, Telford.
Leaders of the Asian communities in each of the towns, and in Birmingham, have strongly condemned those responsible.
* No Way Out is published by Ebury Press and is priced at £7.99.
*All names have been changed for legal reasons.
HOW TO GET HELP:
If you have suffered any kind of abuse and would like to talk to someone, these freephone helplines and websites can help you:
Rape Crisis: Available on 0808 802 999.
The Survivors’ Trust: 0808 801 0818 and thesurvivorstrust.org
Samaritans: 116 123 (across UK and Ireland), and samaritans.org
You can also call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
