Justice for victims of extreme male violence and sexual exploitation who were criminalised

Thousands of women who were forced into street prostitution or subject to rape by grooming gangs have criminal convictions as consequence of their sexual exploitation. Many were children at the time, but the abuse continued once they reached the age of 18.

Having such criminal convictions is deeply stigmatising and socially excluding, continuing to affect employment and other opportunities long after the abuse has ended.

This week (6-13 October), through our Big Give campaign every £1 you give will be doubled. That means your £10 becomes £20 or your £50 becomes £100. Together, we can raise £20,000 in donations, which will unlock £40,000.  

Your support will help us to strengthen our capacity so we can provide legal advice and representation to women whose criminal convictions were a direct consequence of being sexually exploited, including women who were raped in grooming gangs or in street prostitution by pimps and punters.

They were victims not criminals and should have their convictions overturned or expunged from the record.

Your money will go towards:

Employing a criminal appeal lawyer who can explore grounds of appeal for women who were convicted of crimes when they were a victim of pimps and grooming gangs

Women like Jade Nurse, who was only 14 when she became a victim of grooming, sexual abuse and exploitation.

Jade was a child in care who was repeatedly reported missing and collected from care placements by older men who raped and abused her. She was taken to parties, houses and hotels, where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped by groups of older men.

In December 2009, while still a child in care and being sexually exploited, Jade and another girl from her care home were taken to a house by older men. Jade was herself raped at the house, but was subsequently arrested and treated as an offender rather than a vulnerable child in need of protection.

At just 17, she was tried and convicted of causing or inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity involving penetration, arising from the events that night. She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and placed on the Sex Offenders Register until 2016.

Jade has lived with the consequences of that conviction throughout her adult life.

Her experience is a stark example of how victims can be failed twice: first by those who exploit and abuse them, and then by a system that criminalises them rather than recognising and protecting them as victims.

Helping us secure a legislative commitment to extend the provision we helped secure under Section 117 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which had introduced a disregard and pardon scheme for convictions for soliciting and loitering under the Street Offences Act for those who were under 18 at the time.

Earlier this year we asked Tonia Antoniazzi MP to propose a Bill amendment which would have applied to all such women. The government decided however that it should only apply to convictions for offences that took place when the women were under 18. We cannot see the justification for this given so many of the women who were pimped as children couldn’t suddenly free themselves when they reached the age of 18.

Women like Fiona Broadfoot who was only 15 when she was groomed by a ‘boyfriend’ who became her pimp and forced her to sell sex on the streets.

He was violent and abusive. It was not until her early 20s she was able to break free.

She was first arrested when she was only 16 and has 49 convictions for loitering and soliciting.

Fiona has been fighting for over 20 years to challenge the eight pages of her official criminal record which she has carried throughout her life, while none of the men who exploited or abused her – despite knowing she was a child – were ever held accountable.