Paperback: It was the news story that shocked the UK to its core.
In May 2012, nine men were convicted of the appalling exploitation of disadvantaged young girls in Greater Manchester.
Men who kept pictures of their wives and children in their wallets.
None of those relatives knew what their husbands and fathers liked to do to young white girls.
Their offences included grooming, sexual abuse and trafficking.
Many thought it was the first case of its kind.
It was not.
For more than two decades, thousands of vulnerable girls were trapped in a chaotic system that wasted billions of pounds failing to protect them.
As a result, organized gangs were able to abuse the system for their own evil ends.
Outreach workers and charities tried for years to bring the scandal to the attention of authorities but, in many cases, care homes, child safeguarding boards, police and social services did nothing to help.
The results are catastrophic.
Unthinkable (2013) pulls no punches in telling the heart-breaking stories of some of the young casualties of sex trafficking and the outreach workers who tried to help them.
* * * * * * * *
These girls are real people. They have personalities, hopes and dreams like you and I and, as Hilary Willmer, whose charity helps the parents of children who have been sexually exploited told the author: anybody's child, rich or poor, can become a victim.
The scandal of sexual exploitation and of the care system is, as this book's title suggests, unthinkable.
It is about time the unthinkable is finally believed, confronted and dealt with.
Writing this book made me angry. I hope reading it makes you angry too.
(Italics passage is taken from the Introduction of Unthinkable by Kris Hollington, 2013)
Attention: If you have been the victim of sexual abuse, whether yesterday or twenty years ago, it's vital to report it.
Even if you don't want to follow it up with a criminal investigation, you hold valuable criminal intelligence that could be used to help protect other children.
Also, by coming forward, you will have taken their first step on the road to achieving some kind of closure.
You can do this by contacting your local police (or anonymously via Crimestoppers), local social services and various voluntary organisations.
Childline: 0800 1111
Crimestoppers: 0800 555 111
NSPCC: 0800 800 5000
Parents Against Child Exploitation (PACE): 0113 2403040
About the author: Kris Hollington is a Sunday Times bestselling author, ghost-writer and freelance journalist living and working in London. As a journalist, he has written a number of investigative pieces on subjects as diverse as mass murder, assassination, armed robbery, African drug smugglers, diamond mining, art and jewellery theft, the space race, HM Customs and Excise and police corruption for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, The News of the World, The Evening Standard, Arena and Loaded.
In 2010, Kris co-wrote a script for BBC Radio 4's Saturday Play based on the true story of the theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's painting, Scream. Kris was also involved in the production of Noble Cause Corruption, a controversial crime drama, also for Radio 4, broadcast on 5 March 2013.
Several of Kris' articles and books have been featured in TV documentaries including Channel 4's Cutting Edge and ITV1's Real Crime. The Interceptor (co-written with Cameron Addicott) has been commissioned by BBC Drama for an eight-part season due to be broadcast on BBC1 in Autumn 2014.
He is the co-author, with Detective Sergeant Harry Keeble, of three bestelling titles about child protection - Baby X (2010), Little Victim (2011) and Hurting Too Much (2012).
There's more to Unthinkable than seems - or is that less? He says he wants people to get angry, yet when people do get angry - like the English Defence League - he condemns them as "racists". It's a brave exposé, but Hollington ultimately appears unable to escape the bonds of cultural sensitivity that allowed the scandal to happen in the first place.
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