Underage friend is being abused - do I break her trust or not?

I would defiantly tell someone! The abuse has clearly escalated and will continue to do so. If you're worried could you not make an excuse and say someone took your phone and read your messages? Or that you lost your phone so it may have been the person who took it?
And if you do go to the authorities I do believe you can ask for it to be anonymous so your friend won't find out it was you. Even if she does, she may be mad at first but then I think she will realise why you did it. Afterwards, is their any possibility for her to stay round yours or someone else's house?
But I defiantly think its important you do tell someone before it gets even worse.
Best of luck! x

Better to ensure her safety than to lose a friend in my opinion.

Are you sure she's telling the truth and isn't a total fantasist?

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... how is this a constructive post? What makes her story unreasonable?

It's constructive because if her story weren't true, you could cause damage by putting the authorities onto her aunt, who would be totally innocent in that case.

Her story is pretty extreme, and it's common knowledge that people don't always tell the truth online. Some take it further than others. I'm basically advising you to tread carefully, and to not inform the authorities without evidence other than this girl's word.

Problem is that if you inform somone that goes straight confrontational with the aunt (such as the authorities), she will very well deny it all and then blame it on your friend for telling lies. Your friend who is very scared of the repercussions may very well side with your aunt in a bid to protect herself which will throw any chance of anything getting done.

I'd say, inform the brother/the right cousins, but make sure they don't act without confirming it through the friend FIRST. That way, they at least have heard it from her before the aunt has chance to pollute the answer (and oh will she try).

The key will be getting your friend onboard to try and help herself out of this situation though. She's in a frightening position and you need to support as much as possible so that she can have the courage to do something about it.

If you eventually escalate things to the police, you should probably get her to have concrete evidence of what your aunt has been doing before doing so (maybe pictures of bruises?). As **** as it is, hearsay cases get dismissed a lot by the police/authorities, even when it involves abuse of minors. You do have to tread lightly though, the wrong move can put her in more danger and/or restrict her ability to communicate with anyone that can help, unfortunately.

Good luck.

Friend is on board now. I called her and made a long, emotional plea to her, total length of discussion was probably more than 2 hours long. I told her about having rung the NSPCC and how they would be at her house to help in minutes and how her housing situation would be sorted.

She wants to do it at her 'own pace'. She had previously (before my call) made up her mind to tell the cousin that she's close to, who she knows will inform her brother and then they'll be able to 'take action'. She's promised me that she will, and I told her that I won't push her to do it, but I'll probably ask her again in about a week's time.

I urged her to give me permission to make the call to the police or NSPCC etc if she's ever in a situation with a man like that again or if she's seriously hurt like before- but she didn't give me that permission. As a result I'm kind of wary of what happens if that situation arises again, before she's moved out of her aunt's house.

I've tried to get her to take pictures of the bruises for the same reason (on the pretence of medical grounds) but she's so far refused. I think that now she's on board and wants to fix her situation (and crucially, believes it will get fixed, for the first time), she might take some if I ask her for those reasons.

I know the cousin that she's close to, and also quite a few members of her inner family circle enough to identify them - I've found them on facebook now. The cousin himself isn't there though. I'm thinking about a way to get the cousin's phone number without alerting too many family members to my existence/meddling. I think going behind my friend's back and her finding out would be devastating for the trust she now has in me. But I think it's necessary?

Just hold off before doing anything so soon, if she's going to tell the cousin already there's not too much point jumping the gun. I suppose once she has seeked help and if he wants confirmation, you can vouch for her situation.

Like i've said, you want to avoid a situation where the aunt has any chance to weasel her way out.

It's good that you've got her onboard though, hopefully she'll be able to find her way out of this horrible situation soon.