The children were beaten, raped and trafficked.
Conservative estimates put the number of underage victims at about 1,400.
A recently-released report published by an independent auditor describes what happened in Rotherham, England – and it is a difficult read.
It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated. There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone.