“For years she felt she had no voice and that she was powerless, but she’s got a voice now, gentlemen” – Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC speaking to the nine convicted defendants about the complainant at the centre of the grooming trial.

Smartly dressed and with her dark hair neatly tied back, the young woman read out her victim personal statement to the packed and hushed courtroom.

AS IT HAPPENED: Bradford grooming and rape gang sentenced to 132 years

Now in her mid-twenties, the “bright and gifted” complainant re-lived her ordeal in clear and measured tones, flanked by two police officers.

She told of the multiple mental health problems she had suffered daily since the age of 15 and the nightmares and panic attacks that left her struggling to breathe.

She was scarred for life by self-harm and had suffered hair loss and abnormal liver function, following years of drug and alcohol addiction. She struggled to leave her home and saw a mental health worker every fortnight.

The woman said she lived a chaotic lifestyle during the years of abuse that began after she was taken into the care of the local authority when she was 14.

Now living a long way from Bradford, she had to move home repeatedly over the years because she was in fear.

She told how she excelled academically as a child, aspiring to a career in law. But then she committed multiple offences as a youth, possibly as a cry for help and possibly out of frustration.

The woman fought back tears as she told of the heartbreak following the forced adoption of her first child, a girl born when she was in her mid-teens.

“I can’t change what happened but getting justice is the first step to moving on from this,” she said.

Prosecutor Kama Melly QC read out a statement from the second complainant, who was raped by Basharat Khaliq, beginning when she was 14 years old and living in a Bradford children’s home.

She told how she still lived “in a world of fear and anxiety,” afraid to go to the shops or into a restaurant in case she saw “Bash.”

The young woman said she thought she was in a “loving, caring” relationship with him but “it wasn’t love, it was grooming.”

“I was manipulated, used, nothing but a toy to play with,” she stated.

She had to resign from her job after speaking to the police about Bash because she became afraid to meet people.

She was scared he would turn up at her home and had had CCTV and a panic alarm installed.