Grooming gang guilty of raping and abusing girls

Seven men have been found guilty of sexually exploiting two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped and assaulted in Rochdale for five years.

The gang was convicted of various sexual offences against the girls between 2001 and 2006.

The victims, known as Girl A and Girl B, were groomed from the age of 13 and treated as "sex slaves", being expected to "have sex with the men whenever and wherever they wanted", the trial heard.

Girl A told the jury she could have been targeted by more than 200 men, while Girl B said social workers had regarded her as "a prostitute" from the age of 10.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that both girls had "deeply troubled home lives" and were plied with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and given places to stay by the men, who worked on the town's market or as taxi drivers.

The prosecution said the girls were "children ed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded", adding: "They became sex slaves."

Girl A told the jury she may have been preyed on by hundreds of men as her phone number was swapped, but said "there was that many it was hard to keep count".

She told local children's services in 2004 that she was "hanging around" with groups of older men, drinking and taking cannabis, the court heard.

Girl B, who was living in a children's home when she came into with the men on the market, said police and social workers knew what was going on but "weren't concerned enough to do anything about it".

"It was in my file, when I looked it up. I read it," the woman, now aged in her 30s, told the court.

"I was picked up by the police for loitering and prostituting from the age of 10."

Three of the abs, Mohammed Zahid, 64, the leader of the gang, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, were all Pakistan-born stallholders on the market.

Father-of-three Zahid, who was known as Boss Man, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to the girls, who did not know each other.

He also gifted them with money, alcohol and food in return for the expectation of regular sex with him and his friends, the court heard.

In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.

Bashir did not attend the current trial after he absconded while on bail before proceedings got under way.

It can now also be reported that Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, and Nisar Hussain, 41, were remanded in custody in January.

Police received intelligence that the three taxi drivers were planning to leave the UK and had already paid a deposit for their transport.

The seventh defendant Pakistan-born Roheez Khan, 39, also featured in another previous Rochdale grooming trial in 2013.

He was jailed for six-and-a-half years as one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a "profoundly vulnerable" 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009.

During the latest trial, a second jury was required after concerns that one original juror - thought to be an ex-police officer - might be racist.

The prosecution did not oppose the application and a second jury was sworn in shortly after.

Jurors deliberated for three weeks before delivering their unanimous guilty verdicts.

• Zahid, of, Station Road, Crumpsall, was convicted of raping Girl A and Girl B, offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex
• Ahmed, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, and Bashir, of Napier Street East, Oldham, were convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B
• Shahzad, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale, Akram, of Manley Road, Rochdale, Hussain, of New Field Close, Rochdale, and Khan, of Athole Street, Rochdale, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A
• Khan was found guilty of a single count of rape against Girl A

During the trial the prosecution offered no evidence against an eighth defendant, Arfan Khan, 41, of Rochdale, who was cleared of various sexual offences.

Following the verdicts, Det Supt Alan Clitherow, from Greater Manchester Police's CSE team, said the force should have done more at the time.

"What is clear is the way those victims were dealt with at the time is indefensible and inexcusable," he said.

"There was information at the time that police and other agencies could and should have done something with and we didn't.

"We have made comprehensive apologies for that."

He said the force had since improved on how these investigations are managed.

All the men were prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton, an ongoing investigation by the force into historical child sexual exploitation in the town.

A total of 32 offenders have been convicted so far as part of that inquiry along with an earlier investigation called Operation Doublet into child sexual exploitation.

Five more trials are scheduled to take place from September.

Liz Fell from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "These men targeted children, preyed upon their vulnerabilities and groomed them for their own sexual gratification.

"The treatment of the victims at the hands of these predators was nothing short of appalling."

She said the convictions sent "a very clear message" that the S and police would "relentlessly" prosecute those who sexually exploit children, "whenever that abuse took place".

Sharon Hubber, Rochdale Borough Council's director of children's services, said: "We know that these convictions are unlikely to erase the memories of the abuse these women were subjected to as children, but we hope they do bring some form of closure.

"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."

The NSPCC said the "appalling, ruthless exploitation" of these vulnerable girls highlighted the need for children to be able to speak out and warned that adults must educate themselves on the signs of grooming.

"Child sexual abuse can have profound and long-lasting consequences on those who experience it," the charity added.

A sentencing date has yet to be fixed.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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