The most senior judge in England and Wales today said men who prey on vulnerable young girls for sex will be dealt with “severely”, as he dismissed appeals from four paedophile groomers.

The lord chief justice Lord Thomas refused applications to reduce their sentences after they were convicted of sexual offences against a 15-year-old girl in Rochdale.

The girl had been in care and “craved attention” but was given “purported affection” and plied with vodka and cannabis in exchange for sex.

Congolese refugee Freddie Kendakumana, 27, Chola Chansa, 33, taxi driver Abdul Huk, 37, and takeaway worker Roheez Khan, 27, all from Rochdale, were jailed in December last year at Manchester crown court.

The offences took place in 2008 and 2009 but the majority of the defendants were only arrested in 2012 after the grim portrayal of a largely Pakistani-heritage child sex ring preying on white girls in Rochdale emerged during a separate and notorious trial at Liverpool crown court.

Kendakumana and the other defendants today appealed against their sentences, ranging from between four and eight-and-a-half years, on the grounds they were overly harsh.

But Thomas, hearing the appeals alongside Mr Justice Turner and Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, at the court of appeal sitting at Manchester crown court, dismissed each appeal, stating the judge who jailed them, Judge Jonathan Foster QC, had given them the right sentences.

He told them: “It is a serious aggravating factor that she was exploited as a vulnerable person.

“And the judge was right to make clear that the courts must take every step open to them to protect vulnerable young girls from exploitation of this kind in whatever part of the country they live.”

Ahmed Nadim, representing Kendakumana, argued his sentence of eight-and-a-half years for rape and sexual activity with a child was “in excess of his culpability” and “disproportionate” as he did not know she was a vulnerable victim.

But Thomas said it was obvious the girl was vulnerable and a deterrent sentence for Kendakumana, who laughed as he raped his victim, was appropriate.

Elizabeth Dudley-Thomas, for Chansa, said his five-year sentence for sexual activity with a child was “manifestly excessive” as he was the only defendant to plead guilty amid a “sea of denials”.

And he had fallen in love with the girl and treated her well, the court heard.

Thomas said to describe his involvement with the girl as a “loving relationship” was a “travesty” and dismissed his appeal.

Huk, described as a “high risk of harm to children” by probation, had his appeal against both conviction and four-year sentence for sexual activity with a child dismissed.

The court heard he first met the girl at her school gates in his taxi.

John Dye, representing Khan, said the appellant had been left with a “burning sense of injustice” over his six-and-a-half-year jail term for sexual activity with a child and witness intimidation.

Dye told the court the girl was “more sexually precocious than he was”, but the court ruled there was no basis for lowering his sentence.

During their trial it emerged that Kendakumana was first arrested and interviewed by Greater Manchester police (GMP) in December 2008 after the girl complained to police that he had raped her the month before.

But the investigation was dropped until he was eventually charged alongside the other defendants nearly four years later as several men went on to abuse her in the intervening period.

Two police officers were later subject to “formal management action”.

Social care and health professionals dealing with the youngster also failed to pass on her confessions in 2008 and 2009 that she was having consensual sexual contact with a string of older men whom she labelled “boyfriends”.

When Judge Jonathan Foster QC passed sentence he said it was “regrettable” that the victim’s allegations were not fully pursued until 2011.

A fifth defendant, who did not make an appeal today, Mohammed Rafiq Abubaker, 25, of Freehold, Rochdale, was also found guilty of sexual activity with a child and jailed for two-and-a-half years.