2 hours ago
4
Seven men who groomed two vulnerable teenage girls in Rochdale and treated them as “sex slaves” have been jailed for between 12 and 35 years.
The gang members raped and sexually abused the girls between 2001 and 2006 from when they were 13. The two girls had “deeply troubled home lives” and were given drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, places to stay and people to be with, a jury heard.
The girls were expected to have sex “wherever and whenever” the men wanted, whether in filthy flats, cars, and on nearby moors, the court heard.
The girls, who did not know each other, were identified throughout a lengthy legal process as Girl A and Girl B
In an impact statement, Girl A told a three day sentencing hearing this week it had “destroyed” her life. “The abuse has affected every part of my life,” she said. “From what I look like, relationships, health, to my mental health.”
Girl B said: “I coped with what these men did to me as at the time I believed that every man I came into contact with would expect sex. It is horrific that I didn’t know any different.”
She urged other victims to come forward to police. “It doesn’t matter how much time has gone by, it is still possible to get justice,” she said.
The abuse happened “under the noses” of people who should have been protecting them, the court heard. Rochdale council and Greater Manchester police (GMP) have apologised for failings.
After a four month trial the seven men were found guilty of 50 offences and were given jail sentences on Wednesday by Judge Jonathan Seely.
The ringleader Mohammed Zahid, 65, of Crumpsall, was given the longest sentence of 35 years. He was convicted of raping Girl A and Girl B on multiple occasions. He was also found guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, of Oldham, was jailed for 27 years and Kasir Bashir, 50, of, Oldham, was jailed for 29 years. They were convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B.
Mohammed Shahzad, 44, of Rochdale was jailed for 26 years; Naheem Akram, 49, of Rochdale for 26 years; and Nisar Hussain, 41, of Rochdale for 19 years. The men, all taxi drivers, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A.
Roheez Khan, 39, of Rochdale, was found guilty of a single count of rape against Girl A and jailed for 12 years.
The court heard that Zahid, then a Rochdale indoor market trader with the nickname “Boss Man”, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to the girls, as well as money, alcohol and food. In return he expected them to have regular sex with him and his friends.
He was so confident of never being held to account that he would personally pick up and drop off Girl B at the children’s care home where she lived.
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told Manchester Minshull Street crown court: “Such was the brazen way he did this that by the end of the abuse he felt almost untouchable.
“It’s not as if she had no one to turn to. She turned to the care home. She turned to social services.
“She felt able to tell them at some stages, or other people did, and nothing was done. People knew, authorities knew. And nothing was done.”
In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case. His barrister Lisa Wilding KC said her client continues to deny his offending.
Girl A told the jury she could have been targeted by more than 200 offenders as her phone number was swapped but said “there was that many it was hard to keep count”.
Girl B said she presumed agencies knew what was going on as police regularly picked her up after social workers labelled her a “prostitute”.
Following unanimous guilty verdicts in June, Sharon Hubber, Rochdale borough council’s director of children’s services, said: “We know that more could and should have been done by the people who were working here at the time, and for that we are truly sorry.”
Det Supt Alan Clitherow, of GMP, said the way victims were dealt with had been “indefensible and inexcusable”.
He added: “We have made comprehensive apologies for that. We’re not perfect but we are very much improving now on how we manage these investigations.”
All the perpetrators were prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton, an ongoing investigation since 2015 by GMP into historical child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.
A total of 37 individuals have been charged so far, with five more trials scheduled to take place from September onwards.
