A homeless teenager was beaten up and 'left for dead' after being refused housing by Manchester City Council.
The young woman had previously been the victim of criminal and sexual exploitation from a county lines drugs gang.
In 2020 she went to the council for help after she became homeless.
However she was refused, and in desperation turned to a criminal who had previously exploited her for help. He demanded cash from her before attacking her, leaving her needing hospital treatment.
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The council has now been criticised by a watchdog who found that the teenager wasn't properly assessed when she was refused housing.
Manchester City Council has said it 'fully accepts' the findings of the Local Government Ombudsman.
In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the 19-year-old, from south Manchester, described how she 'slipped through the net' of social services, her school, and even her own family - before being denied help when she was at her lowest ebb, leaving her feeling 'simply worthless'.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is referred to in the ombudsman's report as 'Ms X', was at one stage a star pupil.
But her difficulties began when she went to a secondary school far from her area, and fell in with some older youths.
One girl, who was like a 'big sister', introduced her to some 'friends'.
"It was so subtle at first," she said. "You know, taking me for food after school.
"I used to sit in McDonald's and I would do homework with these people.
"It started from that and by the time I was 13, 14 I was being trafficked up and down the country."
The schoolgirl's new friends were criminals involved in 'county lines' - the supply of drugs, often from major cities, to smaller towns.
It's a type of organised crime known for exploiting young people - recruiting and forcing them to sell and traffic drugs from place to place, using violence and abuse to control them.
Ms X says that her routine - 6am starts, as the rest of the family slept, to make the long journey to school - meant that red flags, like her sneaking in and out of the house in the early hours, went unnoticed by her family.
And, even when she came into contact with youth workers who noticed bruising and reported it to social services, she says, the way she appeared on paper - a high-achieving child at a good school, with two parents to support her - meant she was 'overlooked'.
The criminal exploitation became 'really intense', she says, when she was permanently excluded from school in Year 9 as her behaviour deteriorated.
At the same time, family pressures were building at home as a sibling was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
"It's not that I don't have parents that love me," she said. "I think it was genuinely a situation that there almost wasn't enough resources in the family."
Her parents, who had no idea their daughter was being exploited, split up, with the teenager staying with her mother, and her father moving out with her sibling.
In early 2019, Ms X called the police claiming her mum had pushed her and 'trashed her room', the report says, and she was advised to stay with her dad.
However, when she moved in with her dad, threats were made against her life by her sibling, who was suffering psychotic episodes, prompting their social worker to tell her she couldn't live there any more.
That led her to seek help from social services - which was met with a refusal - the first in her desperate descent into homelessness.
She describes weeping down the phone before being told that they couldn't help because she was, by then, over 16.
Then, after a social worker spoke to her mother, it was concluded she was safe with family and did not need to be housed.
The ombudsman's report found that despite the teenager's claims that it was unsafe to return home, the social worker she spoke to did not interview her or make detailed enquiries about her situation.
Eventually, the charity Centrepoint, who work with homeless young people, referred the teenager into a supported accommodation project run by another organisation - but it cost £400 a week.
The ombudsman's report describes how it was understood that only a small contribution towards the rent would be needed, with the rest covered by housing benefit.
But, while waiting for her benefits claim to be assessed, the teenager ran up 'extensive' arrears, before being told that she would have to make a 'substantial' contribution because she was working.
She ended up being evicted, after running up nearly £4,000 in unpaid rent. The council was told, but, despite noting the allegations she had made about criminal and sexual exploitation, did nothing, according to the ombudsman.
"The nights I couldn't sofa surf I was either sleeping rough or just staying awake the full night, walking the streets until it was a reasonable time to go to somebody's house," she said. "That lasted about six months, maybe seven."
She turned again to social services, but was told yet again to go back to her mother's house because her rent arrears meant she couldn't be housed.
"I felt worthless, simply worthless," she said.
"I'm a very proud person. I'm not a person that usually likes asking for help.
"I just felt uncared about, unloved, worthless, unsupported, lonely, scared – I just felt desperate.
"I was crying, I was begging down the phone. I was at the stage where I was like, 'please, somebody just talk to me so I can change my life – so I can be okay.'"
When she went back to her mother's place she was soon thrown out, and, out of desperation, after contacting the council's emergency team again, she contacted an old 'friend' – a criminal who had exploited her as a child.
"I was reluctant to do it," she said, "because I was at that stage where I realised this isn't good. It's not where I want to be, it's not what I want to do."
Within minutes of meeting him, the man attacked her after claiming she owed him money.
"I got beat up and left for dead," she said. "I got left on a street and then was in hospital."
The ombudsman reports that a nurse from A&E phoned the council, saying that the teenager could not be discharged until a social worker came.
Manchester council decided that she was at risk of homelessness, at risk of child sexual exploitation and at risk of experiencing further domestic abuse.
She was assigned a social worker - one who was already involved with her family - and was moved out of Manchester with the local authority's support.
The council finally agreed to house her, recognising that she needed a safe place away from her former criminal associates – but she was told this support would stop when she turned 18 as she was not considered a care leaver.
Councils have a legal duty to support children in care at least until the age of 21.
But because 'Ms X' was nearly 18 when she was taken into care by the council, she was not considered a care leaver and therefore not entitled to any support.
However the teenager made a complaint, and the council agreed that she would continue to be housed until it had been considered.
And, with the help of an advocate from the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS), the complaint was escalated to the Local Government Ombudsman.
"The only reason that this complaint has got so far is because I had an advocate," she said.
"I know if I didn't have an advocate, if I didn't have a youth worker to support me and write all the letters and explain all these things, I wouldn't have got as far as I did.
"I can't imagine how many other young people, 16 and 17-year-olds, are going through this stuff. It's crazy."
The ombudsman found that Manchester council was at fault for not carrying out a proper and full assessment when it received referrals about her in 2019.
On the balance of probability, the report says, it is 'more likely than not' that Ms X would have been assessed as a child in need who required accommodation.
By not being accommodated in 2019, she was denied statutory support at a 'key stage' when she was 'trying hard to break way from her previous lifestyle'.
"Ms X would also not have got herself in rent arrears or had the consequences of being homeless again later in 2019 or the anxiety about where she was going to live," the Local Government Ombudsman's report concludes.
"Ms X also considers she would not have been driven ‘out of desperation’ to approach a previous criminal associate for help, when she was homeless with nowhere to stay, and that would have saved her being attacked."
Manchester council was instructed to pay the young woman £1,500 for the 'avoidable distress and harm' caused to her and to write off all of her rent arrears.
The local authority must also review all homelessness applications it received from 16 and 17-year-olds between April 2019 and March 2020 to check it complied with its own guidance and remedy any injustice caused to others.
Thanks to the ombudsman's ruling, Ms X is now considered a 'new' care leaver and could continue receiving council support beyond 25 if she is in education.
She is now back in Manchester, living in supported lodging - which is like fostering for young adults - while she waits for permanent accommodation.
Despite the effect the exploitation she suffered had on her education she got nine GCSEs, and hopes in the future to work with young people who are in a similar situation and advise social work professionals.
"My mental health has been affected a lot by the things that I've been through, but also by the procedure of the complaint," she said.
"It's almost felt like I've been trying to convince people of something. Why am I having to? You know what you have done and haven't done. It's very clear."
NYAS has a network of advocates to help young people understand their rights, make informed decisions and speak up about important matters.
NYAS Group CEO for England and Wales Rita Waters explained that advocates can help young people who are or have been in care in a variety of ways.
"Young people are the experts in their own lives and know their situation best," she said, "but sometimes they just need a little help to get their voices heard.
"Advocates don’t judge or give their personal opinion.
"They listen and make sure care-experienced children and young people's views, wishes and feelings are respected and represented.
"Care-experienced young people have a right to an advocate who can also help them make a formal complaint or represent them in meetings.
"No problem is ever too big or too small for a NYAS advocate."
As for Ms X, her message to young people is: never give up.
"Keep going, keep emailing, keep calling," she said. "If you feel like you're bothering somebody, good, because if you've got an issue and you need to bother and they're not responding… they need to speak to people.
"And don't feel like an imposter. Don't allow people to make you feel like you don't deserve it or you shouldn't fight for your cause.
"I'd say, keep going, tell as many people your story as you can.
"Hopefully I'll have some better advice in a couple of years' time when I've got through it all."
Young people can find their local advocacy provider by contacting NYAS's national helpline via freephone 0808 808 1001 or by emailing help@nyas.net.
A Manchester council spokesperson said: "We fully accept the findings of the Ombudsman and the remedies required of us."
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