© By Sophie Lewis | The Grooming Files | The Indie Leaks | @realtalkrealtea

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“If I hear one more predator whimper ‘I couldn’t help myself,’
I might blow a fucking top.
And here’s why.”

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They say the same things, over and over:

“I just got consumed.”
“I didn’t have enough self-control.”
“I don’t know what came over me.”
“I tried to stop, but I couldn’t.”

They want you to believe it was a moment of weakness.
A slip.
A sudden loss of humanity they couldn’t resist.

They want you to believe it was inevitable.

It wasn’t.

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Every single time — it was a choice.

They chose to send the message.
They chose to accept the friend request.
They chose to start the conversation.
They chose to say the words that blurred boundaries.
They chose to keep pushing.
They chose to organise meetings, share photos, arrange abuse.

Every click.
Every call.
Every act.
A choice.

There was no “overwhelming force.”
There was no “blackout.”
There was no “oops.”

There was desire, opportunity, and willpower.
And they applied it — fully conscious, fully aware.

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They’ll try to paint themselves as victims of some irresistible tide.

But survivors know the difference.

Survivors know that grooming isn’t spontaneous.
It’s methodical.
It’s calculated.
It’s a series of escalating decisions.

It’s weighing the risk of being caught against the reward of abusing a child —
and deciding that the abuse is worth it.

It’s months, sometimes years, of steady, strategic, deliberate steps.
Not an accident.
Not a weakness.
A campaign.

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Predators aren’t poor souls “consumed” by urges.
They are architects of harm.
They lay the foundations.
They build the walls.
They lock the doors.

And when the house burns down,
they pretend they “fell into the fire.”

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Enough.

Enough giving them language that softens their crimes.
Enough pretending they are helpless in the face of their own evil.
Enough swallowing their self-pity.

They are not weak.
They are not lost.
They are not victims of anything but their own choices.

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Every time they say:

“I just couldn’t stop.”

Remember:

They did.
They chose not to.

Every time they say:

“I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Remember:

They did.
They just didn’t think you would catch them.

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Their hands didn’t slip.

Their minds didn’t black out.
They walked step by step into evil.
Eyes open.
Mouths smiling.
Phones recording.

And they would have kept walking –

if no one had stopped them.

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