By Lisa Dowd, Sky News Correspondent
Six vulnerable girls continued to be raped and abused for five years because authorities failed to take them seriously and bring a paedophile ring to justice.
The girls were reported missing 500 times between 2005 and 2010, according to a Serious Case Review looking at the case in Oxford.
One told how she turned up at a police station covered in blood in the early hours, but was ignored.
The review found multiple failings and said authorities could have stopped the abuse in 2005, rather than 2010 when it was finally uncovered.
However, it found no evidence of "wilful professional neglect" by police and social workers.
The victims' horrific accounts of abuse and torture are documented within the review, along with their contact with authorities.
One girl said: "I turned up at the police station at 2/3am, blood all over me, soaked through my trousers to the crotch. They dismissed it as me being naughty, a nuisance."
Another told the authorities: "The Asian men felt they ran Oxford. That was exciting. People were afraid of them. I felt protected. People respected them."
Thames Valley's police chief said she deeply regretted her force's failings.
"We are ashamed of the shortcomings identified in this report and we are determined to do all we can to ensure nothing like this ever happens again," said Chief Constable Sara Thornton.
Between 2005-10 the vulnerable girls were reported missing 500 times - half of those when they were in council care - but it did not raise alarm bells with authorities.
Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board Maggie Blythe said: "The Serious Case Review has seen no evidence of wilful professional neglect or misconduct by organisations, but there was at times a worrying lack of curiosity and follow through, and much work should have been considerably different and better."
The report reveals 373 girls have now been identified as possible victims of sexual exploitation within the last 16 years in the county.
In May 2013, seven men were convicted of 43 offences including trafficking and rape.
Their trial detailed how they "actively targeted" girls from the ages of 11 and 12, the majority of whom had been sent to live in care homes.
The girls were plied with alcohol, introduced to drugs, then sold for sex in guest houses, private houses and hotels, and abused by multiple men, some of whom had travelled to Oxford from "far afield".
The humiliation and degradation involved knives, meat cleavers and baseball bats. The girls' ordeals sometimes lasted days.
Like similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby, the report states the victims were white girls and the perpetrators mainly men of Asian heritage and Muslim culture, but says "no one was aware of evidence of any holding back due to ethnicity".
However, it recommends more research needs to be done at a national level, saying "it cannot be parked as too potentially sensitive or inflammatory to pursue openly at that level".
The report found the abuse could have been identified as early as 2005, when police had "considerable concern" about some girls.
But it said too often the girls, who were seen as "precocious" and "difficult", were not believed, and their accounts were thought to be "exaggerated" by authorities.
They were seen as young adults and it was assumed that they had control over their actions.
The report also highlighted the ordeal of one parent who "went hunting the streets of SE England night after night" looking for her daughter who now "suffers nightmares, flashbacks and is depressed".
It said some parents felt authorities had "no empathy" when they reported abuse and they "felt patronised".
Since the trial, Thames Valley Police said approximately 700 children in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire have been referred to them where there is a suspicion they might be being sexually exploited.
"Like the whole community we are horrified at what happened in Oxford," said Jim Leivers, Oxfordshire County Council's head of Children, Education and Families.
"We fully accept that we made many mistakes and missed opportunities to stop the abuse."
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