Police chief Shaun Wright's denials "prompted sex abuse victim to come forward"

The witness told Sheffield Crown Court today that when Mr Wright, then police and crime commissioner insisted in September 2014 that he had not been aware of the scale of the issue before Prof Jay’s revelations, she had decided to come forward.

In her cross-examination of the alleged victim Miss Gillian Batts, on behalf of defendant Basharat Hussain, asked why she had gone to the police in September 2014.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reason, answered: “I made that decision after I saw Shaun Wright stand up on TV and say he wasn't aware anything was going on.”

Miss Batts queried why she the woman had spoken to a journalist, Andrew Norfolk from The Times, before the police.

She answered: “I felt like Shaun Wright was lying and people needed to know he was lying, but I didn’t want to go public so I did an anonymous story.”

Miss Batts asked: “What did you get out of the article?”

She answered: “I saw Shaun Wright resign - that's all I wanted.

“I didn’t benefit financially, I didn’t receive any money.”

Mr Wright — who was child services Cabinet member for Rotherham Borough Council for five years in the early 2000s — resigned three weeks after the August 2014 publication of the Jay Report.

The woman, who claims Hussain (38), sexually assaulted her when she was 12 and trafficked her to Blackpool four years later, said she had come to court to try and move on with her life and so she could “start living instead of just existing”.

The witness also told the court that when she lived at the Woodview Children’s Home — closed by Rotherham Borough Council earlier this year, she had told a member of staff !what was going on and the staff member had told her she would contact police.

The woman said a police officer who often visited the care home, who they referred to as Kimble the Thimble, picked her up alone the next day.

“He picked me up and took me out, he pulled up in a country lane and ripped loads of paperwork up said I was lying,” she said.

Basharat Hussain denies 15 offences including indecency with a child, procuring a female for sex, indecent assault, rape, false imprisonment and threats to kill.

The trial continues.

Child sex abuse trial: the defendants and charges