I don't know if it is cowardice or self-preservation. But grooming gangs are something we would prefer not to talk about.

We've even given them a polite-sounding name, like something to do with hair care or personal maintenance, and look away. Talk about something else.

Little wonder then that we have been finding the BBC drama on grooming gangs, Three Girls, too painful to watch.

Liv Hill, Molly Windsor and Ria Zmitrowicz, as Ruby, Holly and Amber, and who are groomed and abused in BBC drama Three Girls

On Wednesday night Ruby learned she was pregnant at the hands of the gang. After her abortion, police kept the terminated foetus in a freezer. It was a scene that shocked viewers. Some felt sick and had to turn off.

My email inbox is similarly harrowing. After I asked for people to share their personal experiences with grooming gangs, I have been overwhelmed — in every sense.

Not only by the numbers, but by the stories they share. One lady — let's call her Jemma — says she is telling her story for the first time. Poured out, page after page, like a big, silent scream. From the first cigarette to nightly abuse by multiple men at the hands of the man she thought loved her.

No matter how many of these stories come to light, no matter how familiar the pattern of the way these men operate, you don't get used to it. Can't get used to it. Shouldn't.

The hook who snares the girl. The predator who gets the girl. And the co-ordinator who links the predators together in dirty rooms where the girls are raped by gangs.

The ordinary girl. Head turned by free cigarettes and a fast car, alienated from family, ostracised from friends in the blink of an eye, then fed to the gang.

It is not normal to hear about a little girl of 12 being locked in a strange room and raped by stranger after stranger, persuaded by her boyfriend it is the only way for him to pay off the debts he owes — and for them to go on spending more time together.

Somehow he made her believe it was all her fault. That she was to blame. Threatened they would kill her nan if she told.

Amber, Ruby and Lorna Bowen in the second episode of the drama which airs on BBC One at 9pm on Wednesday

A survivor of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham rang my radio show on Sunday to share her story. She speaks for thousands.

She was 13 when she reported multiple cases of rape to the authorities. When she revealed the men's names, she was told not to discuss their ethnicity, not to make race an issue.

She went on: 'The police said it was my word against his. And they said he was quite a nice guy so it probably wouldn't stand up in court.

'I saved the clothes I was raped in. But they said they lost them, so there was no evidence anymore.'

Failed by the authorities, she fell back into the hands of the gang, and went back to being exploited.

The only way her parents could make it stop was to move their child out of the country, to send her away from the UK to escape these men who preyed on their child.

This pattern is familiar, too. In the Sikh community, children are sent away to give the child some hope of starting again — and undoubtedly to protect the family honour. It seems an abused child never really escapes some feelings of shame.

One child was sent to California to a foster family, to try to rebuild her life. She has not been back to the UK since. She misses her home. She misses her family. Her family's actions have reinforced everything the groomers said — that she was to blame.

But she also sees this new life as a way to start again. A little girl. Alone on the other side of the world.

I met with Mohan Singh after tracking him down from a photo in which he was protesting outside court against a grooming gang.

Left, DC Maggie Oliver who quit in disgust at the way the investigation was handled. Right, Lesley Sharp as DC Maggie in Three Girls. The former detective says offenders identified during the original investigation are still at large and abusing young girls in the town

Resplendent in orange and purple robes, he was there to represent the Sikh community, to say these heinous acts against children were not in his name. To show that those charged with child sexual exploitation did not represent his religion.

I watched him and wished other religious leaders would stand with him. To say no, not in our name either.

I asked him why gangs were so successful, why police had done nothing to help the victims.

He said: 'I think it is due to political correctness, but it's also down to nobody wanting to be called a racist.

'Nobody wants to call a spade a spade, nobody is grabbing the bull by the horns and saying: "No. Abuse is abuse, and we must stop it".'

Mohan Singh appeared on Katie Hopkins LBC show and said: 'Nobody wants to call a spade a spade, nobody is grabbing the bull by the horns and saying: "No. Abuse is abuse, and we must stop it"

He said people are too afraid to speak the truth. And it is a curious thing, because girl after girl tells me, reminds me, they never gave a thought to the religious beliefs of the man who groomed them, who they thought loved them.

They didn't even see a difference in culture or colour. They were colour-blind to the hook who plucked them from their lives to feed a hungry group of men.

They only remember his kindness, what it felt like to be special, how thrilling it was to feel loved.

Race and religion don't come into it for the girls. And that is Mohan's point, too. Whoever is to blame, we need to focus on the fact that sexual abuse of children is wrong.

I think he is right. To agree sexual abuse of children is wrong must be a fundamental starting point for every conversation.

But we cannot sidestep the fact that 90 per cent of grooming gangs charged with offences are Muslim. And yet only 5 per cent of the population follows Islam.

The numbers of abusers who purport to be Muslims are disproportionately high. All the more reason for an imam to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Mohan outside the court. For the religious leaders to condemn the gangs.

I have been criticised widely for discussing the subject on my show. Rounded on by liberals, accused of Islamophobia, of bias, and reminded I failed to mention Jimmy Saville.

I never find this argument helpful. This is not a competition. Does it make it better that little girls are raped by both white men and brown men? Does that make it OK? Is that the multicultural ideal?

Top row left to right: Abdul Rauf, Hamid Safi, Mohammed Sajid and Abdul Aziz; Bottom row left to right: Abdul Qayyum, Adil Khan, Mohammed Amin and Kabeer Hassan

Where are the feminists on this? The thousands of 'Pussy Marchers' and their silly hats? The outspoken women who are paid to sit on panels to talk about women's rights? Where are JK Rowling, Lily Allen speaking for Britain and Gary Lineker? Why the silence?

One of my followers on Twitter articulates it beautifully: 'Feminism stops on Islam's doorstep. It is the precise point of the intellectual paralysis of intersectional doctrine.'

Or the 'thought vortex', as I like to call it, where the need to kowtow to the Muslim faith overrides the injustice of the rape of young white girls regarded as 'trash'.

One thing is clear. Whilst Three Girls was a programme on TV, its content is a reality for thousands of young girls in the UK. A reality which means many now live apart from their parents.

One viewer texted the Whistleblower for the Rotherham Abuse Scandal, Jayne Senior, simply saying: 'I've just watched my life being acted out'.

It is a reality which means many are still carrying the secret horror of it around with them every day. A big bag of shame, sitting heavily on their shoulders.

And just because a few mugshots show a handful of men in jail, we should not allow ourselves to imagine this problem has gone away.

These gangs are relatively sophisticated, organised and networked between cities. When a child falls into their hands they are trapped in a web whose invisible threads stretch right across the country.

Shabir Ahmed, the group's ringleader, who the girls called 'Daddy'. Right, played by Simon Nagra in the BBC drama

The Director and Head of the Child Abuse department at Switalskis Solicitors says the problem is getting worse.

'I have had reports from numerous girls and parents in Rotherham that child sexual exploitation by young Asian males is continuing to this date.

'I spoke this week to a 17-year-old who had been pimped out by Asian gangs in Bradford and complained that social services and the police failed to take action to prevent abuse or arrest or disrupt the abusers.'

These reports are backed up by Maggie Oliver, played by Lesley Sharpe in Three Girls. A former detective who helped cage a gang of Rochdale sex groomers in 2012, Maggie says offenders identified during the original investigation are still at large and abusing young girls in the town.

I have seen how terrifyingly easy it is for these men to pick a target, alienate her from her family, and then feed her to the gangs.

And in the last few weeks, I have heard the same story, told in different ways, too many times.

The Rotherham survivor who shared her story with me on air has managed to move on, to rebuild her life and start a little family of her own. She is a strong woman.

She had a boy. I asked if she was glad. She said she was relieved. He stood more of a chance against the gangs.

Katie will be discussing the problem of grooming gangs with Jayne Senior, the Whistleblower for the Rotherham Abuse Scandal on LBC radio 10am Sunday 21 May.