Huddersfield grooming: 'Predatory men' jailed for rape Published duration 19 February

image copyright West Yorkshire Police image caption Usman Ali, Banaras Hussain, Abdul Majid and Gul Riaz and two other men were jailed for a total of 55 years

A grooming gang has been jailed for sexually exploiting young girls "for their own perverted gratification".

The "predatory men" targeted two girls in the Huddersfield area, creating a relationship of trust that allowed them to "perpetrate gross sexual abuse".

The girls were controlled by violence and threats against them and their families, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Usman Ali, Banaras Hussain, Abdul Majid and Gul Riaz and two other men had previously been found guilty of rape.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: "The way these girls were treated defies understanding. The abuse was vile and wicked.

"It is clear that both have been and remain profoundly affected by the abuse which ended some years ago."

image copyright Getty Images image caption The case is part of a wider investigation into the sexual exploitation of girls in the Huddersfield area

The girls were groomed from the age of 13 and 14 with the offending starting in 1995 and taking place over a period of more than 10 years.

Judge Marson said the grooming of the girls was "insidious and persistent" and described the abuse as "disgusting and degrading".

He said one of the victims would go missing, returning home "heavily under the influence of alcohol or drugs", sometimes naked on her lower half and with injuries.

She was raped by Ali in his car, who was "rough and aggressive" and left her in tears.

Majid raped her numerous times, often threatening to not take her home unless she had sex with him.

'Disbelieved'

The judge said the second victim was regularly plied with drugs and alcohol "in order to facilitate the gross sexual abuse by the older men".

She was indecently assaulted and raped by Riaz, who plied her with vodka at her father's flat.

Prosecutor Andrea Parnham read victim impact statements to the court.

She said one victim had tried to report the abuse to police in 1997 but was "disbelieved and felt let down by them".

The other victim, Ms Parnham said, had her childhood "taken away from her".

image copyright PA image caption The men denied the charges against them and went on trial at Leeds Crown Court

Six men were jailed for a total of 55 years with a seventh, who has been convicted of one count of rape, due to be sentenced on Thursday.

Speaking after the case, Det Ch Insp Richard McNamara, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "The sentences handed down to these men today reflect the depravity of their actions and I hope it will bring some comfort to their victims to see them jailed."

The men sentenced were:

Usman Ali, 34, of Huddersfield, was convicted of two counts of rape and jailed for eight years

Banaras Hussain, 39, of Shipley, was convicted of one count of rape and jailed for nine and a half years

Abdul Majid, 35, of Huddersfield, was convicted of two counts of rape and jailed for 11 years

Gul Riaz, 43, of Huddersfield, was convicted of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault and jailed for 15 years

A further two men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were each convicted of a count of rape with one jailed for eight years and another jailed for four

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.