She added: “People say they didn’t know what grooming was back then. But if a police officer didn’t know it’s wrong for a 14- and a 24-year-old to be involved, then they were in the wrong occupation […]

“We were ‘slags’ and ‘little criminals’ [to them]. To this day, some people look at us like that.”

Devastating details were revealed in court, such as one woman who said abuse started when she was just 11, and she was passed around men as “payment” for the debts of her ‘boyfriend’ for years.

The extent of the problem was uncovered largely thanks to the dedication of Sara Rowbotham, a crisis intervention team coordinator working for a sexual health support service, who made it her mission to expose what she called a “major crisis where girls were being raped on an industrial scale.”

Woodhouse’s solicitor said of CICA’s initial decision: “I am utterly shocked by the notion that decision-makers in a government organisation can consider that 14 or 15-year-old girls can consent to sex with adults.

“They decided she must have consented when it’s just not legally possible.”

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC revealed nearly 700 child victims of sexual abuse, including grooming, have been refused payments.

A CICA spokesperson said the compensation body was reviewing its guidance by consulting with organisations such as Barnardo’s and Victim Support to make sure the new advice would be “as robust as it possibly can be”.

Image: BBC One / Rex Features

Rotherham abuse victim initially denied compensation because she gave “consent”