Huddersfield grooming gang: 20 men found guilty of child sex abuse in Leeds Crown Court trials

SIXTEEN members of a child grooming gang have been given jail sentences totalling more than 200 years over the sexual exploitation of school girls in Yorkshire.

By The Newsroom Friday, 19th October 2018, 3:51 pm Updated Friday, 19th October 2018, 7:33 pm

The 20 Huddersfield grooming gang men jailed at Leeds Crown Court

Four others are awaiting sentence after being convicted of offences in a trial which ended earlier this month.

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We can now report the sickening details of how more than a dozen vulnerable girls in Huddersfield, some as young as 11 or 12, were cynically abused over a seven-year period for the perverted sexual gratification of their abusers.

The 20 Huddersfield grooming gang men jailed at Leeds Crown Court

During three trials held throughout 2018, a court heard how teenage victims were often drugged before being passed around gang members to be sexually abused.

Other girls were trafficked to remote areas such as moorlands and reservoirs where they were threatened with violence if they did not comply with their abusers' sexual demands.

The abuse took place between 2004 and 2011.

Describing the abuse, Judge Geoffrey Marson, QC, who presided over the first two trials, said: "The details were chilling. It was persistent and prolonged.

Huddersfield

"Girls were raped, they were trafficked to isolated areas or to houses for the purpose of sexual abuse by those who took them or by others.

"If they didn't comply they were, on occasions, beaten.

"They were taken to so-called parties at houses where there would be older Asian men.

"On occasion drinks were spiked and many times these girls were rendered senseless.

"They would be taken to a room where, one by one, men would go and abuse these girls sexually.

"Sometimes no contraception was used. Sometimes plastic bags were used as condoms.”

The extent of the abuse can finally be reported after a judge today lifted reporting restrictions.

The first trial, which began in January and concluded in June, saw eight men jailed for a total of 123 years after being convicted of a total of 85 offences.

In a second trial, which ended in June, eight defendants were sentenced to a total of 98 years after a jury returned 26 guilty verdicts against them.

Temporary reporting restrictions, made under the Contempt of Court Act, had been in place throughout the trials.

The restrictions were lifted after a judge heard an application by members of the media to lift them.

During the trials prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, told jurors how gang members would deliberately target vulnerable children who were socially isolated and not well supported by friends and family.

He said: "Then they befriend that child and make them feel special - whether that be simply appearing as someone who wants to spend time with them, or by flattery, or by plying them with drink and drugs.

"In that way a relationship or trust is established, albeit that it is entirely false and has been deliberately created to bend the girls to their will."

The prosecutor said none of the girls would have consented had they truly had free choice and not been groomed.

He said: "Once the child is broken in that way and sexual activity with older men becomes a norm, they are passed about to other men who also use them sexually without any regard for whether or not they are consenting.

"This case is concerned with just that sort of grooming.

"These men did not only control these girls by grooming.

"They were also quite capable of employing threats and violence if the need arose."

Mr Wright added: "There is here regrettably, a sense that those in authority who handled the concerns of parents and friends expressed at the time of these offences did not do enough to try to engage with these girls and find out what was happening to them.

"It might be said by way of balance that so corrupted was the thinking of some of these girls as a result of the extreme grooming to which they had been subjected that many at the time didn't think they wanted or needed help from anyone."

THE NAMES

Trial One:

- Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, of Holly Road, Huddersfield - jailed for life, minimum of 18 years (nickname - "Pretos")

- Irfan Ahmed, 34, of Yews Hill Road, Huddersfield - jailed for eight years ("Finny")

- Zahid Hassan, 29, of Bland Street, Huddersfield - jailed for 18 years ("Little Manny")

- Mohammed Kammer, 34, of West View, Huddersfield - jailed for 16 years ("Kammy")

- Mohammed Rizwan Aslam, 31, of Huddersfield Road, Dewsbury - jailed for 15 years ("Big Riz")

- Abdul Rehman, 31, of Darnley Drive, Sheffield - jailed for 16 years ("Beastie")

- Raj Singh Barsran, 34, of Caldercliffe Road, Huddersfield - jailed for 17 years ("Raj")

- Nahman Mohammed, 32, of West View, Huddersfield - jailed for 15 years ("Dracula")

Trial Two:

- Mansoor Akhtar, 27, of Blackmoorfoot Road, Huddersfield - jailed for eight years ("Boy")

- Wiqas Mahmud, 38, of Banks Crescent, Huddersfield - jailed for 15 years ("Vic")

- Nasarat Hussain, 30, of Upper Mount Street, Huddersfield - jailed for 17 years ("Nurse")

- Sajid Hussain, 33, of Grasmere Road, Huddersfield - jailed for 17 years ("Fish")

- Mohammed Irfraz, 30, of North Road, Huddersfield - jailed for six years ("Faj")

- Faisal Nadeem, 32, of Carr Green Lane, Huddersfield - jailed for 12 years ("Chiller")

- Mohammed Azeem, 33, of Wrose Road, Bradford - jailed for 18 years ("Mosabella")

- Manzoor Hassan, 38, of Bland Street, Huddersfield - jailed for five years ("Big Manny")

Trial Three:

- Niaz Ahmed, 54, of Woodthorpe Terrace, Huddersfield - to be sentenced on November 1 ("Shaq")

- Mohammed Imran Ibrar, 34, of Manchester Road, Huddersfield - to be sentenced on November 1 ("Bully")

- Asif Bashir, 33, of Thornton Lodge Road, Huddersfield - to be sentenced on November 1 ("Junior")

- Mohammed Akram, 33, of Springdale Street, Huddersfield - to be sentenced on November 1 ("Kid")