'It seemed life couldn't get any worse'

Samantha Walker-Roberts' horrific ordeal began when she was raped aged 12 - but then she was snared by a paedophile gang

- WORDS: ANN CUSACK

Samantha Walker-Roberts' nightmare began when she was groomed online aged 12 by a man posing as a teenager.

After months of messaging, the predator, a 34-year-old former teacher, abused her in his sports car. Weeks later, the traumatised schoolgirl got drunk with her friends and was snared by a paedophile gang. Her ordeal was similar to thousands of girls who were raped by grooming gangs in towns and cities across the UK.

She carried the trauma through her teenage years, but fought back to campaign for change after meeting her future husband aged 18. Now 31 and a mum of three, Samantha, who has waived her right to anonymity, is working with the government's inquiry into the decades-long grooming gangs scandal, which was announced in June.

Samantha, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, says, "I can't change what happened to me, but I can speak out to try and make sure all children are aware of grooming and how to stop it. We have to educate and protect our children so that child sex exploitation becomes a thing of the past."

Samantha recalls how she was lured into a web of evil by ex-teacher Paul Waites as a naive 12-year-old in 2006.

"At the time, all my friends were obsessed with an online platform for teenagers and I wanted to fit in, so I made myself an account," she says. "When Waites contacted me, he said he was 18. I told him I was 13, because I wanted to sound grownup. It never occurred to me he was lying.

"He seemed very caring. I found myself confiding my problems. I was unhappy at school and at home. I was waiting for tests for ADHD and autism, and I felt I didn't fit in anywhere.