Watching Three Girls (BBC One, Tuesdays, 9pm), I kept thinking: “This is how people are.” Not all people, thank God. But in a part of Rochdale – half forgotten, half ignored – there were three girls, three of many, who were raped repeatedly by older men.
The girls were mostly in care; the authorities didn’t believe them. They drank, they were obnoxious, they might even have convinced themselves and those around them that this was just who they were and what they did. It’s left to an outspoken social worker to articulate moral clarity. “There’s no such thing as a child prostitute,” she says. “What there is, is a child who’s being abused.”
