Victim was raped repeatedly when she was 13 and 14, court heard, with judge saying the men treated the trial with contempt

Twelve men are facing “substantial” prison sentences after sexually exploiting a vulnerable schoolgirl in West Yorkshire, although the alleged ringleader of the gang remains at large after police failed to prevent him leaving the country during the investigation.

Arif Chowdhury, 20, a convicted drug dealer, is alleged to have fled to Bangladesh after police arrested him in 2012, days after being arrested on suspicion of raping the girl when she was just 13 and he was 15 and then allegedly pimping her out to his friends and contacts in Keighley, Bradford crown court heard last year.



Louise Blackwell, QC, leading the defence submissions at Friday’s sentencing hearing, described Chowdhury as a violent, manipulative and evil man who had “slipped through the net”.

West Yorkshire police said inquiries are ongoing to trace Chowdhury.

The court heard that Chowdhury first persuaded the girl to do drug runs in Keighley when she was 13. She told police that when she tried to stop working for him, he verbally and racially abused her, and later pinned her to the ground and raped her in overgrowth by a church in the town.

He then allegedly brought her to meet four teenage friends who raped the girl in an underground car park at a disused police station. Forensic tests found the victim’s name was written on the wall, along with those of her abusers. Semen matching one of her rapists was discovered on the wall above one of the old parking bays.

Sufyan Ziarab, 22, and his brother Bilal Ziarab, 22, were both convicted of two counts of rape at the car park, along with Yasser Kabir, 25, and his half-brother Tauqeer Hussain, 23. Tauqeer was also found guilty of raping a different girl, unknown to the other victim.

The jury were not told that Kabir had already been convicted last summer of 12 rapes and sexual offences against two very young girls, when he was 13-15 and they were aged between six and nine.

The girl told police she thought Israr Ali, 19, was her friend. But he forced her to give him oral sex and when she refused, he threatened to call Chowdhury, the court heard.

Nazir Khan, 24, and his brother Faisal Khan, 27, were found guilty of raping her one after the other in one afternoon on Dalton Lane near Keighley town centre when she was 14, along with their cousin Saqib Younis, 29, and Zain Ali, 20, and Hussain Sardar, 19.

Another man, Mohammed Akram, a taxi driver, admitted having sex with the girl in his cab when he was 59 and she was 14, after his semen was found in her underwear. Vulnerable and leading a “chaotic” existence, she was “easy prey” for him, the prosecution said.

A final man, Khalid Mahmood, 34, pleaded guilty to five counts of raping the main victim in Cliff Castle Park in Keighley on the day the trial was due to start. She was 13 or 14 at the time and he was about 30. He would ply her with alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana before abusing her, the court heard on Friday.

When the trial began, Mahmood was already serving an eight-year sentence, having been found guilty of raping a 43-year-old woman in Cliff Castle Park, as well as a charge of attempted false imprisonment after trying to snatch a child off the street.

Sending them into custody, the judge said the men had treated the proceedings with “contempt and arrogance”, having been seen laughing and joking throughout the trial. The men also made remarks to female journalists covering the trial.



“In 40 years of practice, I have never seen a dock that has been as insolent and disrespectful as this one,” said the judge, Mr Justice Thomas QC.

The court heard the victim, who is now 18, started out a happy and “sensible” child but changed when she started high school in Keighley. She suffered from low self-esteem and had very few friends. By the time she was taken into care in June 2012, her mother and grandmother had reported her missing from home 71 times. Identified as vulnerable by teachers and social workers, she spent more time at a local youth mentoring programme than she did at school, she told detectives.

She was first visited by police in April 2011 and warned about the dangers of associating with older men who might buy her presents in return for sexual favours. In January 2012 she was referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Bradford council by a pastoral support worker at her school.

She was desperate for love and attention, the jury was told, and she “lacked the wherewithal to extricate herself” from dangerous situations “given her longing to belong”. Michelle Colborne QC, prosecuting, said: “She was being exploited and was out of her depth but was too naive to do anything about it.”

The men will be sentenced on Monday.