‘I was 14 when I was abducted and trafficked into a paedophile ring’
L.eon Towers grew up never knowing what it meant to be loved. Born in 1975, he was six weeks old when he was found in his cot next to his father’s body. His mother was arrested for her death, and Leon had already been placed in foster care when it was discovered that his father had committed suicide.
This brief prelude was the last time he saw anything that resembled home. From there, the system intended to protect him revealed something else entirely.
Leon spent the first 14 years of his life in torture in the foster home where he grew up, under rules he felt were designed to oppress him: he was beaten, psychologically tortured, and told that his mother had killed his father. When he was just eight years old, he was forced to stand naked in a freezing coal shed for 14 hours as punishment for taking a piece of bread without asking.
He was forbidden from speaking and spent the entire weekend without saying a single word; He wanted the school week to pass, for fear that he would eventually lose his voice altogether.
Every mirror in the house was covered with towels so he couldn’t see his own reflection; His stepfamily used to tell him it was because he was ugly. Leon had to fix his hair on the side mirror windows every morning on the way to school, and there was no other way to see what he looked like. Leon became the child that no one wanted to hear or see.
This was a period when the surge in demand for social services, combined with sweeping cuts to the public sector introduced by the Thatcher government, left local authorities unable to keep up. An already underfunded and undermonitored care system meant that vulnerable children were easily overlooked and failed by those who aimed to protect them.
“I was held captive there, I couldn’t escape… I was experiencing this torture, this prison, this hell, and I couldn’t escape it,” he said. Independent.
donate Here or donate £10 by texting SAFE to 70577. Missing Persons – enough for one child to get help.
Independent It aims to raise £165,000 to help launch SafeCall, a free new service that will provide confidential support, guidance and a route to safety for children in crisis. Around 70,000 children go missing in the UK every year.
One of these children, Leon, believed it would be better for him to disappear than to remain in care, even if it meant he could be killed. One night he slipped away into the Cumbrian darkness.
When a man sitting on a park bench offered him a place to stay, Leon thought he was finally being shown kindness. In reality, this was the beginning of unimaginable horrors.
He was kidnapped and taken to London four days later where he was sold to a pedophile ring. He was told he needed to keep moving to avoid returning to foster care. Over the next three months, it was taken to 17 homes across the country.
She stayed in neither place for more than a week, being raped by the older men, then moved to the next house, where the abuse was repeated.
Nearly thirty years later, Leon remembers every place he stayed. They were never homes; These were apartments with beds and sometimes sofas, rented for just this purpose.
Because she was too young to understand what sex was, she believed these men were her friends. She was taken to nightclubs and made to feel like a celebrity. The abusers bought her clothes and made her listen to tapes in the car between homes to give it a “holiday” feel.
Even when he was pushed against a wall and strangled, or when a married man with children told him he would be killed if he told him about the rapes, Leon felt, in some twisted way, that he was being cared for for the first time.
She did not realize she had been raped until she was 29 years old.
She later discovered that the man who had kidnapped her had killed someone who had previously taken her to London and subjected her to the same abuse.
Three months later, Leon escaped and ended up with another child in the same trafficking ring. A few days later, she trusted adults again and went to the police station to get help; He was sure this would be a turning point.
“When I escaped from the pedophile ring, I went to the police station… It was around five o’clock. It was pitch black, it was raining and I was soaked to the skin. I went to a police station in Newcastle and said, ‘My name is Leon and I think you’re looking for me.’
“They basically said: ‘I have no idea who you are. You’ve come to the wrong place, you need to go to social services. You better hurry, they close at five-thirty.'”
The panic of running in the dark through an unfamiliar city to find social services before closing time never left him.
“I was away for a few days before I went to the police. I had to eat outside with rubbish bins. I remember eating a half-eaten burger from the bin because I was starving.
“I had nowhere to go. I only had my clothes on. I am 14 years old. I was afraid they would find me again and catch me, and I didn’t know what to do.”
After crashing into the door of social services in heavy rain, Leon was taken in and remained in the care home overnight. The next day he was taken back to his old foster home. For the first time, he wasn’t afraid of his caregivers. He left again a few days later and was moved into full-time residential care.
He spent the next two years trying to destroy every memory: stealing cars, shoplifting, doing drugs.
His turning point came at the age of 18 when he became a father for the first time.
In 2009 he wrote: Leon: A Lost ChildhoodA book about his life. His mother, Audrey, bought it that year and read it without knowing that her son had written it. Terrified that she wanted nothing to do with him, she never dared to make contact.
As a child, Leon convinced himself that he was Audrey Hepburn, and the idea came after watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
“I built up a story in my head that he was in Hollywood making movies and when he made enough money he was going to come back and get me,” he said. “That’s what made me go through all this trauma.”
He was always sure to get a birthday card from her on his eighteenth birthday. When nothing came, this was the greatest sadness he felt for her absence.
After posting an appeal on Facebook for information about her father, she learned that his father had been abusing his mother and selling her to men to be gang raped in order to pay off a gambling debt.
In March 2020, Leon texted her. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through and what you’ve been through, and I’m reaching out to tell you that I never knew any of this. I’ve always loved you, you’re my mother. I always wanted to find you, but I didn’t think you were looking for me.”
He responded within three minutes. They talked every day until they met in person in May.
On her 45th birthday, he sent her a 45th birthday card.
“We’ve been talking every day since then, and it’s been five years… We’re a big part of each other’s lives.”
Leon is now a passionate advocate for children. She runs a YouTube channel called Let’s Talk Trauma TV and discusses topics such as child sex trafficking, domestic and sexual abuse. Next July, she will lead a series investigating ten unsolved cases of children disappearing from care homes.
“Someone needs to be trained in the care system to be their voice [I realised] “When people go missing, no one actively looks for them.”
Leon, a soon-to-be ambassador for Missing People, says it is vital to break the cycle of children going missing and reminds people that no child goes missing for no reason.
Please donate now To the Independent and Missing Persons’ Safe Call campaign, which aims to raise £165,000 to create a free, nationwide service to help vulnerable children find safety and support.
If you or a loved one is lost, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
If you are experiencing feelings of distress or finding it difficult to cope, you can speak to Samaritans confidentially on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org or visit . Samaritans Website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are a US resident and you or someone you know needs mental health help right now, call or text 988 or visit: 988lifeline.org To access online chat on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis helpline available to anyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country you can go www.befrienders.org To find a helpline near you.
If you are a child and need help because something has happened to you, you can call Childline free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 if you are an adult and are worried about a child. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support to adults on 0808 801 0331.
