Tonight's special programme comes to a close as Victoria Derbyshire asks some of the women how the abuse has affected their lives.

"We've got to stop this," Kate responds, describing how it had led her to experience mental health struggles.

Fiona says that only in the last 12 months has she finally been able to start looking forward to the future.

"All children of this country should be protected, not the perpetrators," she adds.

For Jade, the abuse has had long-lasting ramifications on her mental health and has impacted her career opportunities.

Chantelle responds that she is "still fighting for justice" and questions whether it was worth ever reopening her case.

"For the past six years it's been a living nightmare," she explains. "When they're still out there walking the streets, I just feel totally let down."

Now the panel are holding up images of themselves as children and are being asked what they think of when they look at them.

"It reminds me of loss of innocence," says Fiona.

Kate says she thinks about being a kind child, and about how that part of her was not taken away by her abusers.

Jade holds up a picture of herself from around the time she began to be abused at 14.

"It brings back loads of trauma," she says.

Chantelle holds up what she says is the only picture she has of herself as a child while living in foster care.

"I wish I could have stayed that child and not gone through what I went through," she says.

Deputy Chief Constable Becky Riggs says grooming gangs are continuing to operate and that it is "highly likely" it is happening in every part of the country.

"I genuinely think out of 44 [police] forces, very few would say there isn't a crime of that type being investigated in their [area]," she adds.

She says there is a "misconception" about it being a "northern crime", which is not correct - before pointing out gang-based grooming happens in rural areas too.

Also in the studio tonight is England and Wales’ most senior police officer on grooming, Deputy Chief Constable Becky Riggs.

She begins by addressing the women directly, calling them "incredibly brave" and thanking them for the message they are offering to society.

"Your voices matter, and they always have," she says, before Victoria Derbyshire interjects to note that the survivors were ignored for a number of years.

Riggs accepts that she can't defend the "errors of the past", but moves on to set out what policing does now in similar cases.

Now, she says, the police are working alongside other agencies to safeguard vulnerable children.

"I think in 2025 we are much more alive to some of the signs and symptoms with regard to children that are being exploited," she suggests.

Image source, BBC / Newsnight

New data on grooming gangs in England and Wales obtained by BBC Newsnight indicate that British Pakistanis were substantially over-represented amongst suspects in 2024.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council collected data on “group-based” child sexual abuse, of which grooming gangs form one part.

In 2024, in cases where a grooming gang suspect's ethnicity was known, just over half were white British, and around one in eight were Pakistani - even though one in 40 people in England and Wales were Pakistani according to the 2021 Census.

The NPCC told Newsnight that the figures should be regarded with caution because just under a third of suspects had their ethnicity recorded.

The widespread failure to collect high quality data on abusers, victims and offences was criticised in an 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Alexis Jay.

Now the panel are being asked about what they hope to see from the ongoing review of grooming gangs being led by Baroness Louise Casey - which, as we learned today, has been delayed but is expected to be published soon.

Fiona says she wants it to drill down into where abuse is ongoing, and then ensure powerful local inquiries are held in order to inform a national strategy to stop future abuse.

"We don't just want convictions - we want the crime prevented," she adds.

The women on tonight's roundtable are now asked for their perspectives on how they were treated by the authorities while experiencing abuse.

Fiona says she was told that she was "endangering hard-working men", and had been threatened with being put in a secure unit.

"It was easy for us to be forgotten about," she remembers.

Chantelle adds: "We had no one that cared about us... Who was there to stand up to protect me?"

"We're all embarrassed to be open and honest about it, and why should we be?"

We profiled Zara's story a little earlier on, and now we can bring you more on her conversation with Victoria Derbyshire.

During the pre-recorded interview, she describes how she mistook her alleged abuser's initial friendliness for kindness during a vulnerable time in her life.

"In my head he was my boyfriend," she explains, recalling how the abuse didn't begin "straight away".

"I was convinced that it was a normal relationship," she says. "It was easy for me to accept the flattery and the compliments, to feel wanted... his background reeled me in even more."

As for the response from the authorities, Zara suggests that the police missed the chance to end the abuse when they stopped her "more than once" while travelling with her alleged abuser.

"I wasn't asked any specific questions myself," she remembers. "I just think it's a complete failure."

A fifth survivor, Zara, has never spoken publicly before.

We are now seeing parts of an interview she did with Victoria Derbyshire earlier, where she recounts how the abuse she suffered at the hands of limousine business owner David Saynor developed.

She describes how "from the age of 12, I've not lived a normal life".

A reminder that the posts on this page contain details some readers will find distressing.

Now Kate is speaking about her experience of abuse.

Kate says her attackers treated her like "she was nothing" and that they "wanted to turn me into what they wanted me to be, so they could justify abusing me".

She says her abusers would harass her on her doorstep and send men to her home asking for sex.

"The abuse was almost daily," she says, and estimates she was attacked by dozens of men in Telford and later in Birmingham.

She calls for the government to block her abuser from going into a low security prison and be given the right to have day release.

Kate describes him as a "scary, violent individual" and that she fears for herself and the public if he is allowed back into the community.

Fiona next shares how her story began while she was living in a care home.

Speaking on live TV for the first time, she recounts how she had told adults about the sexual assaults she had experienced.

"We basically told them that we were being groomed without using the words, but they just never did nothing," she explains.

Image source, BBC/Newsnight

We're now hearing from Jade, who was abused while growing up in care in High Wycombe.

She says a police and social failure led to her arrest and conviction for inciting the abuse of another girl after being found by police at a house party as a child.

Jade says she was "accused of taking girls out to get sexually assaulted" but "didn't have a clue what was happening".

She served 14 months of a two year sentence given to her when she was 16, a period where she too was being abused.

The result has been that she is not able to go on school trips with her children or apply for certain jobs because of her conviction, which she is trying to overturn.

"It feels like I'm still being abused, like they're still controlling my life," she says.

We hear from Chantelle first as tonight's programme begins. A reminder you can watch live at the top of this page.

She recounts some details about how her story began while she was in care - you can find more on this in our post below.

She's then asked what kind of abuse she was put through by Victoria Derbyshire.

In response, Chantelle describes how she was given drugs and made to do things that she didn't want to.

The worst time, she recalls, she was found naked by police at a man's house, and taken back to the children's home.

Now, she says she is being asked to remember details about the police officer who found her, even though she made a report that night.

Image source, BBC / Newsnight

Warning: This post contains details some readers may find distressing.

The programme has just started. Let's bring you the final survivor's profile as it begins.

Jade says she was abused by hundreds of men in the Buckinghamshire area from the age of 14 onwards.

She says it began after she left her mother's home to live with her father, a drug addict who introduced her to dealers.

During a chaotic upbringing, Jade believed those dealers could protect her - but from that point on, she says she was repeatedly attacked by adult men at parties while intoxicated.

In 2008, she was placed into care and a year later was made subject to a special safeguarding order for children who repeatedly going missing.

But Jade was arrested and convicted of causing or inciting another girl to engage in sexual activity after being found by police at a party with another child.

Jade remains a convicted sex offender but says that none of the men she says abused her have been convicted of a crime.

The Maggie Oliver Foundation - a survivors charity set up by a former police officer who raised concerns about how abusers in Rochdale were investigated - said it is supporting Jade to have her conviction overturned.

It’s approaching 22:30, which means tonight’s special Newsnight programme is just about to begin.

We’ll be bringing you text updates as we hear the survivors’ stories right here, and you can follow along by tapping watch live at the top of the page.

As a warning, some of the details you hear may be distressing.

Chantelle was groomed and raped by a gang of British Asian men in Manchester between 2003 and 2007, beginning when she was 11 years old.

She was in the care system at the time as her mother was in and out of prison.

Chantelle's ordeal began after she met a man in his early 20s who, at the time, she considered to be her boyfriend.

She has previously recalled how he introduced her to other men and she was given alcohol and drugs, before being forced to perform sexual acts on them.

Her case is being investigated by Greater Manchester Police. So far no-one has been charged with an offence.

Chantelle, who is now 33, is also suing Manchester City Council for the abuse she endured while under its care.

A spokesperson for the local authority said they were "deeply sorry" for what happened to her, and that she had been "let down by the system".

"Not enough was done to protect her and other vulnerable young people in similar circumstances in the late 1990s and 2000," the spokesperson said.

Warning: This post contains details some readers may find distressing.

Fiona Goddard was abused by a predominantly British Asian grooming gang in Bradford from the age of 14, shortly after being taken into care.

It began after one of her abusers met Fiona and her friend, also 14, at a petrol station and bought them a bottle of vodka.

Fiona's groomers plied her with drugs and gifts. A court heard she was "in effect used as a prostitute" by another of her abusers.

She has previously recounted how she was driven to suicidal thoughts and self-harm as a teenager.

In February 2019, nine men were convicted of 22 offences against Fiona and jailed. The groomer received 20 years for five counts of rape.

When contacted by BBC Newsnight, a spokesperson for Bradford Council said there were "significant failings" in how Fiona was cared for an reiterated its apology to her.

• If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support are available at BBC Action Line

Another one of the women we'll be hearing from tonight is Kate Elysia - not her real name - who was abused by a gang of men of Pakistani origin in the Shropshire town of Telford.

First, a warning that the details in these posts are distressing.

She was first raped when she was 18, shortly after moving out of the family home into a bedsit.

Kate, who is now 36, has previously estimated she was attacked by more than 70 men.

She gave evidence to an independent inquiry into gang grooming in Telford, which found that "nervousness about race" led to the abuse being ignored for generations, with more than 1,000 girls impacted.

Two of the men who abused Kate - Mohammed Ali Sultan and Shahmeel Khan - were convicted of rape and sexual assault.

Sultan, who was considered a ringleader of the gang, was released on 10 February by the independent parole board - a decision the government said it was "disappointed" by.Khan was approved for open prison conditions in April.

We'll shortly be sharing hearing from five survivors of grooming on tonight's Newsnight special. Here's the first of five profiles on the women who have agreed to speak out.

Zara - not her real name - is the first victim of prolific abuser David Saynor to go public. He used his limousine business to lure child victims in Rotherham.

His trial heard how we would pick up young girls at schools and children's homes and offer them "promotional work" for his business.

Zara was just 12 when she was first groomed by Saynor, a white British man. He would give girls alcohol, drugs and money before raping or assaulting them - behaviour described by a judge as "depraved... cruel and manipulative".

Last year, Saynor, 77, was jailed for 24 years after being found guilty of 15 offences against eight young girls - including rape and meeting a child following sexual grooming.

Separately, Zara also alleges she was abused by a British Pakistani man, who is due to go on trial.

Image source, BBC/Newsnight

Image source, PA Media

As we've already mentioned, tonight’s Newsnight special comes after Home Office Minister Jess Phillips apologised to MPs earlier today in the House of Commons for a delay in the publication of a national audit into grooming gangs.

So what’s the background to this audit?

For more than a decade there has been a series of of high-profile cases where groups of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing and raping mainly white girls in the UK.

As part of an investigation into this, a seven-year national inquiry on child sexual abuse, which took into account the role of grooming gangs, was published in 2022.

Then in January this year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a nationwide review of grooming gang evidence, as well as five government-backed local inquiries.

As part of this, Cooper also announced a “rapid” three-month national audit - the Casey Review - headed by veteran government trouble-shooter Baroness Louise Casey to examine the demographics of the gangs and their victims, as well as "cultural drivers" behind the offending.

The Conservative Party has previously called for another full national inquiry instead of this regionalised approach. Baroness Casey’s audit had been expected to be completed in May, but it is yet to be published.