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1: Why we do this<br />
We don’t always know if the children we<br />
see are ever rescued from their abuser.<br />
This is true of Ana.<br />
We imagine that Ana – who might be in<br />
her late teens – has now realised that the<br />
horror of what she experienced was not<br />
“normal”, was not “an expression of love”,<br />
but instead was a ruthless and criminal<br />
exploitation of her innocence. It was<br />
multiple crimes committed over several<br />
years and instigated by those who should<br />
have been protecting and nurturing<br />
that innocence.<br />
Ana may well wear the mental, and<br />
potentially physical, scars of the abuse<br />
she suffered for the rest of her life. If she<br />
is aware that the videos and photographs<br />
continue to be circulated online today<br />
with such prevalence, her suffering is<br />
likely only further compounded.<br />
Ana is sadly one of many, many children<br />
we see every single day. A victim of<br />
grooming – robbed of her right to a<br />
carefree and innocent childhood.<br />
We can only hope<br />
that she now<br />
has the support<br />
and care she<br />
deserves, but the<br />
sad truth is we<br />
just don’t know.<br />
You can hear more victim and survivor<br />
experiences in our podcast, Pixels From<br />
a Crime Scene, launched in spring 2020.<br />
We pieced together Ana’s story over a<br />
three-month period by collecting and<br />
recording data every time we saw her.<br />
Names and some details have been<br />
changed to protect identities.<br />
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