Operation Sanctuary: More jailed for roles in grooming ring Published duration 6 September 2017

image copyright Northumbria Police image caption Clockwise from top left, Badrul Hussain, Habibur Rahim, Abdul Sabe and Mohibur Rahman were all investigated as part of Operation Sanctuary

Four more men have been jailed for their part in a drugs and grooming ring that forced young women to have sex.

They were convicted as part of the Operation Sanctuary investigation into a grooming gang that sexually abused vulnerable girls in Newcastle

Habibur Rahim, 34, was jailed for 29 years for rape, inciting prostitution and drugs offences.

Abdul Sabe, 40, was handed a 12-year term for sexual exploitation, inciting prostitution and drugs offences.

Night terrors

Newcastle Crown Court judge Penny Moreland also jailed Mohibur Rahman, 44, of Northcote Street, for four and a half years for inciting prostitution, drugs offences, sexual assault and sexual exploitation.

Badrul Hussain, 37, Drybeck Court, was sentenced to four years in prison for drugs offences.

The court had heard that Sabe, of Dean House, was already on the sex offenders register when he carried out the abuse.

The men were dealt with on the second day of sentencing of gang members.

Last month 17 men and one woman were found guilty after two years of trials, with eight men convicted of conspiracy to incite prostitution.

The court heard from a young female victim who still suffers from regular night terrors and now sleeps with a knife by her bedside.

image copyright Northumbria Police image caption The grooming network is being sentenced this week

She was raped by Rahim, of Kenilworth Road, who used a wardrobe to barricade her in the room with him.

The father-of-two, also known as Sham, had already plied her with alcohol and drugs.

'Losing my hair'

In a statement, read to the court, the victim, who was 17 at the time, said: "I have suffered severe depression and a split personality.

"I feel paranoid all the time and don't feel safe in my own flat, I have started losing my hair.

"I wake up in the night fearing Sham is in the flat. I keep wanting to take my own life to get away from it all. I now sleep with a knife by my bed."

Rahim was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to incite prostitution, relating to eight different victims, a number of trafficking for sexual exploitation offences and one count of rape.

Judge Moreland said he had been a high profile and active member of the group and had engaged in "sustained and systematic abuse".

She said he had caused extreme harm to his victims by cultivating their dependence on alcohol and drugs.

She also repeated her statement from a previous sentencing that there was no evidence for the offences being racially aggravated and the gang had picked out their victims because they were young and vulnerable.

Six of the gang have already been jailed and the sentencing of those remaining is expected to last until Friday.

During the investigation Northumbria Police paid a child rapist more than £10,000 to act as an informant.