THE actor Samantha Morton has admitted she thought twice before revealing that she had been sexually abused in care at the age of 13.

Morton, the star of Minority Report and the recent BBC adaptation of Cider with Rosie, said that the decision to speak out had been “difficult”, but she felt it was important to give a voice to those who have suffered from abuse.

Morton spent much of her early childhood in foster homes before moving permanently into a council-run children’s home in Nottingham when she was 11.

Last year she revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by two residential care workers. When she subsequently told social workers they did nothing.

Morton decided to speak out after the emergence of claims of organised sexual abuse in Rotherham and Oxfordshire.

“I was frustrated at how vulnerable young people were being treated,” she told a Sunday newspaper. “This has got to stop. There needs to be a radical rethinking because the system is not working.”

She said speaking out was “hard and tough and incredibly painful,” and she only did it after obtaining approval from her partner and her family.

“I’m still in the middle of an investigation with the police," she said. "I’m glad I did it. It was important. I have a voice. Most of these people don’t have a voice and I didn’t have a voice when I was a kid either.”