Terrified teenager rescued from sex traffickers' brothel starts new life in Milton Keynes

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named for her own protection, was trafficked from her native Eastern Europe home last year and set to work as a prostitute in the West Midlands.

Her relative and his partner live in Milton Keynes and were horrified when they learned of her fate.

After weeks of detective work, they managed to trace her and, with the help of police, rescued her last August.

Unable to return to her native country due to her family receiving threats from the traffickers, the girl, who we will call X, moved in to live with her relatives, A and B, at their city estate home. Slowly, she started recovering from her ordeal.

"We arranged for her to have English lessons, but we soon realised that her learning difficulties were worse than we thought," said B.

"In many ways she is like a child. We have a really close bond and she calls me mummy, which is very sweet. But she is still a little girl - she trusts everyone and extremely vulnerable."

B contacted her GP to try to arrange an assessment to test X's mental capacity and determine the extent of her learning difficulty.

"The doctor didn't appear to want to know. They seemed to think it wasn't their responsibility because X is from Eastern Europe. But she can't go back there - it's too dangerous. England is her life and her home now.

"My partner and I will always be here for her. X is like a daughter to me now. But we'd like her to be given the chance to live as independently as possible, perhaps with a safe supported living environment, where she can be with people her own age and learn life skills. But we can't organise anything like that until she has a proper assessment."

After repeated refusals from doctors. B called Milton Keynes social services department in desperation.

"I spoke to a lady and she was amazing. She took on our case and has been wonderful. X is now under the adult learning disabilities department and her assessments start this week. They are doing the works - even a full psychological assessment." she said.

"These days you read such a lot of negative stories about social services. I just wanted to thank them and say how wonderful they have been with X. We are so grateful," added B, who has also thanked the Victim First service.

X is recovering well from her ordeal at the hands of the traffickers, said B.

"She is crazy about anything to do with horses, and the highlight of her day is going to look at the horses in a nearby field. She really is a pleasure to have around... I am just so glad that we were able to rescue her."

Four men have been charged by police in the West Midlands with human trafficking and sexual exploitation offences. They are due to go on trial later this year.