Raheem Ahmed, 41, was jailed for 12 years

Two men on the periphery of a twisted child sex gang who indecently assaulted three teenage girls and sexually humiliated another were jailed for a total of 20 years today.

The victims of Raheem Ahmed and Kamran Khan, of Bolton, said they thought the abuse was normal.

They added that they could never lead a normal life after being forced to perform sex acts on the pair.

One girl said she had lowered her 'life expectations' and another said it had 'shook up her whole life' because of the abuse they suffered at the hands of a gang of men.

Judge Peter Ross heard at Oxford Crown Court how the girls were left permanently scarred by the abuse.

Jailing Ahmed, aged 41 years, for 12 years and 37-year-old Khan for eight years, Judge Ross said the duo were 'at worst' on the periphery of a child sex grooming gang.

They were convicted of a total of three indecent assaults and one count each of false imprisonment between 2000 and 2001, following a lengthy trial in March.

Judge Ross said: 'You were both convicted of serious offences following a lengthy trial which has been characterised as an Oxford grooming case.

'I'm prepared to sentence you separately from the other defendants on the basis that, at worst, you were on the periphery of this group and it can't be said that you were party to targeted grooming of some of the young women who have given evidence in this case.

'Nevertheless, the offences which you have been convicted of are serious and will be dealt with with severe sentences.'

Ahmed forced a teenage girl when she was 14 to perform oral sex on him in a car while his friends watched on and 'rejoiced', the court heard.

On another occasion he fondled a different teenage girl down an alleyway then ejaculated on her.

The court was also told how Khan grabbed a teenage girl off a boy she was kissing and dragged her around the back of a pavilion where he pushed her to her knees and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.

However, the girl, who was aged 13 or 14 years at the time, fought him off and refused.

On another occasion, both men locked a teenage girl in a room where they forced her to take off her top. They then mocked and humiliated her as they threw substances at her face and rubbed it into her skin.

Kahn and Ahmed threatened to lock the girl in the basement where 'no-one would find her and she would die' and said they would kill her if she told anyone what had happened in what Judge Ross described as a 'terrifying and protracted period of false imprisonment.'

In a victim impact statement by one of the girls read to the court by prosecutor Alan Gardner, she described how the 'degrading' incident had had a domino effect on her life.

'What happened to me was very traumatic and shook up my whole life,' her statement read.

'What they did was both humiliating and degrading.'

Mr Gardner added: 'What happened caused her to change the goals she wanted to achieve in life. It left her emotionally crippled and unable to lead a normal life.

'She says the "direction my life took is the direct result of what this man did to me. It took things from me I'll never get back and has left stain on me and left a scar on me. Nothing can compensate what they did to me".'

Kamran Khan (pictured) was jailed for eight years for one count of indecent assault and one count of false imprisonment

Another victim said: 'When this happened I was messed up and felt this sort of thing was normal and happened to people like me.

'Having to recall what happened that day made me feel disgusted and gross all over again,' her statement read.

Defending Khan, Derek Johashen said an incident with one of the girls was 'short-lived' and nothing more than a 'juvenile attempt.'

Sally Howes QC, defending Ahmed, of Starwort Path, Oxford, said: 'Mr Ahmed's approach to today is holistic and philosophical. What I will say is that we are dealing today with a very different man from the man that took shameful advantage all those years ago.'

Dark-haired Ahmed, wearing glasses and a turquoise polo shirt, nodded his head, while Khan, wearing a dark blue suit jacket, blue tie, and white shirt, shook his head as Judge Ross sentenced them.

Khan was also sentenced to three months in prison for breaching a notification requirement following a previous conviction of rape.

Both were put on the Sex Offenders' Register for life and made subject to the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for an indefinite period.

Ahmed and Khan were convicted as part of a major trial which saw a total of eight men convicted for running a child grooming ring on a 'massive' scale across the city.

They had sexually abused five girls who were aged as young as 13 years, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between 1998 and 2005.

Six of the group - Moinul Islam, Kameer Iqbal, Khalid Hussain, Alladitta Yousaf, Assad Hussain and Haji Khan - will each be sentenced separately for their role in what prosecutors called 'routine, cynical and predatory sexual exploitation' in June.