The media should stop using the word 'Asian' to describe perpetrators of sex crimes says a Sikh organisation.

Three men and two women were found guilty of a range of offences involving the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham.

There has been widespread condemnation from all sections of the community following the judgements.

Brothers Arshid and Basharat Hussain were found guilty of multiple rapes and indecent assaults of teenagers in the South Yorkshire town.

A third brother, Bannaras Hussain, 36, admitted 10 charges including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at the beginning of the trial.

Karen MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40, were found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment.

Reacting to the Rotherham abuse trial Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said, “The six found guilty of systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable teenage girls in Rotherham deserve severe sentences on Friday to deter others.

"This is the least the courts can do for the victims that have endured more than a decade of violence and horrific sexual abuse.

“We have learnt the perpetrators of these crimes regarded themselves as above the law as the authorities were supposedly worried about race relations and turned a blind eye despite repeated warnings.

“One of the demands in the Sikh Manifesto that we published a year ago before the General Election was that the government should encourage public bodies and the media to abandon the use of the term ‘Asian’ when describing perpetrators for reasons of political correctness.

"If the four men that have been found guilty and carried out the abuse were Pakistani Muslims this is how they should be described and not called Asian.”

The Sikh Federation says it is the largest Sikh organisation in the UK.