Silence Serves the Wrong People

Episode 2: What Is Going To Be Different This Time?The Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs has begun.Survivors have been promised that this inquiry will be different. That lessons will be learned. That victims and survivors will be at the heart of the process. That institutions will be held accountable.But many survivors have heard similar promises before.In this episode, Ilja Abbattista explores what came before this inquiry, why some survivors lost confidence in the process before it had even properly begun, and what needs to happen if this inquiry is to achieve meaningful change.Drawing on her own lived experience of organised exploitation, Ilja shares insights into how exploitation networks identify vulnerability, recruit, control and silence victims. She discusses the gap between policy and reality, the importance of trauma-informed practice, and why survivor knowledge must be recognised as more than testimony.This episode asks difficult but necessary questions:• What is genuinely different about this inquiry?• Why do survivors often struggle to trust official processes?• What can we learn from previous inquiries?• Are we making full use of the knowledge survivors carry?• How do we move beyond reports and recommendations towards real change?This conversation contains discussion of child sexual exploitation, grooming, trafficking, violence and institutional failure.Listener discretion is advised.If you are affected by any of the issues discussed in this episode, please seek support from an appropriate professional or specialist organisation.Silence Serves the Wrong People is a survivor-led podcast exploring the conversations many people avoid, the questions that often go unasked, and the realities that sit behind the headlines.

Content Note: This episode discusses rape, sexual violence, child exploitation, trauma, and systemic failures. Please listen in a way that feels safe for you.Episode 1: The ManifestoSilence serves the wrong people.In the first episode of Silence Serves The Wrong People, Ilja Abbattista explains why this podcast exists and why the conversations that need to happen are still not happening.Using a recent rape case that sparked national outrage as a starting point, Ilja explores what happens when systems fail the very people they are supposed to protect, what survivors hear when decisions are made about their lives, and why silence continues to benefit those with the most power.This is not a legal analysis.This is not political commentary.This is the lived reality behind the headlines.In this episode:• Why Silence Serves The Wrong People was created• The difference between being consulted and being heard• What trauma-informed practice looks like in reality• Why tokenism continues to harm survivors• The cost of performative inclusion• Why lived experience must be recognised as expertise• The gap between policy, systems and human impact• What this podcast will challenge, explore and expose moving forwardThis podcast covers lived experience across modern slavery, human trafficking, child abuse, care systems, learning disability, domestic abuse, child exploitation, county lines, criminal gangs, cuckooing, FGM, forced marriage, honour-based abuse, sexual violence, neurodivergence, trauma, recovery, and life after survival.Because silence serves the wrong people.And we're done being quiet.Connect with Ilja:Website: www.iljaabbattista.co.ukSpeaking, Consultancy & Training Enquiries:www.iljaabbattista.co.ukSubscribe, follow and share with someone who needs to hear this conversation.