When our daughter was 13 she became involved with exploitative older men.

School told me that she had been seen in a worrying area with men and others girls and that she was having sexual relationships.

I challenged our daughter about this. She was very aggressive and denied everything but it turned out to be true. I reported it to school and asked social services for help.

Our daughter went missing while looking for her friend who had run away from home. She was found locked in a flat used by about 20 men as a place to take underage girls for sex. When the police removed the girls they said they were there of their own choice so couldn’t do anything.

Our daughter was excluded from school and took off on the first morning to her friend’s house. They met up with some men whom they had previously met in a shopping centre. These men had also been grooming them over the phone. The men left our daughter alone in a flat with two men in their 40s. She was not allowed to leave. One man said she owed him for letting her stay. We do not know what happened to her that week but she did manage to escape. While she was missing the police did not take us seriously. We had to do the searching alone.

On her return, the police questioned her and took her around the area where she thought she had been. They told her she was a liar and that she was wasting time and government money. Her behaviour deteriorated significantly after that. She continued to go out and we couldn’t keep her in. Men were constantly ringing her mobile and she was coming in at 5am on some occasions. We followed some men and night after night I sat on a wall at the bottom of the road in the freezing weather until she came back. I was also trying to get car registration numbers.

We continued to tell her that we loved her and wanted her to be safe – even at the most argumentative times.

When she started to try to get away from the men we realised that she was being blackmailed. They threatened to harm us too.

The police eventually allocated an expert to our case. Although he was superb the men who abused our daughter were never brought to justice.

We are very proud of our daughter who is doing well now she is free from these men. We do, however, still fear for her and our safety.