AN MP has described failings by social workers investigating the case of a 12-year-old girl who was raped four times as “horrific”. 

Jackie Doyle-Price, Tory MP for Thurrock, spoke out after the Gazette revealed this week Thurrock social services and other agencies missed 25 opportunities to intervene in the care of the girl over three years, despite social workers being aware of allegations she had sex with up to 20 men. She had been raped by four of them.

Today, the Echo can reveal Thurrock Council is under the spotlight again as social services’ care for a second vulnerable girl is being investigated.

It has emerged no one has been dismissed from Thurrock Council over the failings.

Miss Doyle-Price said the first girl, referred to as “Julia” in a serious case review report into the failings, should have been taken into care when she first said she had been raped in 2010.

She said: “This is horrifying.

The system has failed this girl very badly. Clearly, she has suffered from parental neglect, but social services have failed to intervene appropriately because they were unable to engage with her mother.

“It is quite clear this child should have been taken into care in 2010.”

The report found the case was closed twice and not treated seriously enough until the girl, who has learning difficulties, alleged a fourth rape by a 19-year-old man took place in late 2012. Only then did social workers put her under a child in need of protection plan. She was even secretly given contraception by her school nurse, who did not raise the alarm, despite being aware of her sexual activity.

The report said the 39-year-old mother, called “Sophia” in the report, did contact social workers for help a number of times.

Miss Doyle-Price said: “This is what we see over and over again with these cases. These are the children who deserve protection the most, but if the parents don’t care, or if there are learning difficulties, the agencies behave as if these children don’t deserve any better. It is a disgrace. I think every local authority in the country will have cases like this where social services fail to act because it is all too difficult.

“It is clear this girl was very disturbed by what had happened to her, yet she appears to have received no support to deal with it. At no point in this three-year engagement with social services has she been treated as a victim of a serious crime.”

Essex Police investigated the rapes, but did not find enough evidence to prosecute.

A Thurrock Council spokesman said: “Appropriate and continuing support has been offered to Julia and her welfare remains the paramount concern of the council. No information is being released that might identify her or her family.

“No members of staff have been dismissed.”