THE MOTHER of a teenage sexual abuse victim has criticised the police for their handling of the case.

The Glasgow woman, whose daughter was sexually abused and filmed by her then-partner more than a year ago, complained to the police following the incident in 2015.

She was unhappy that an iPad containing videos of the abuse was handed back to the family without them being deleted first, and was concerned that her young daughter had seen the horrific material.

A complaint was also submitted about a male officer who explained to her daughter the extent of the abuse in the videos during an interview at the police station.

The concerned mother said a female social worker, who was present during the interview, should have been the one who discussed the incidents with her daughter given their sensitive nature.

The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) has now investigated the force’s handling of the family’s complaint and ruled they did not handle one of the concerns properly.

Watchdogs revealed officers did not examine the seized iPad at all, so were unaware of its contents but ruled officers had handled the complaint about the device appropriately.

However they also decided the force failed to handle the woman’s complaint about the male officer “to a reasonable standard”.

Investigators found that a friend of the family who had been present during the officer’s meeting with the teenage victim, was not questioned about her version of events.

The girl’s mother has hit out at the police for failing to look at iPad and for not properly addressing her complaint.

She said: “I feel like they didn’t listen to me.

“They said they had looked at the iPad, it was videos they had seen before but I don’t know how they could say that if they didn’t even look at it?

“My daughter was using the iPad after we got it back, she might have seen one of the videos of what happened to her. That’s how serious it is and I don’t feel like they understand that.

“It’s dragging everything back up again and we just want to move on and get on with our lives, but then I don’t want this kind of thing to happen to someone else.

“My daughter doesn’t talk about what happened, she can’t speak about it. It’s too traumatic.”

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the outcome of the PIRC investigation, and as we have been asked to provide further information in the form of statements, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."