this left them "vulnerable to sexual exploitation"
Three members of a Yorkshire grooming gang have been sentenced for plying two vulnerable girls with drugs and alcohol and passing them between numerous men for sex.
Ibrar Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmed and Fayaz Ahmed were the latest of eight defendants who have been jailed regarding the abuse of the two girls, which can now be reported.
In a statement, one of the victims, who is now in her 40s, said:
“I feel that if I had been listened to sooner, rather than later, my life could have been different.”
She said she “became an object – used and abused from the age of 13”.
The victim continued: “Nothing in the world can ever fix the damage they caused me. Because of them, I have lost my identity.”
Nearly 30 years after the abuse, the girl said she still suffers flashbacks “in my waking life and in my nightmares”.
The grooming gang abuse has left her unable to trust people “including the services there to protect me, but didn’t”.
She added: “Still, to this day, I carry shame.
“I went through too much too young. I’m still trying to fix the trauma that others inflicted on me.
“I hope that, once this is over, I may finally be able to move on with my life and reach my potential.”
Judge Ahmed Nadim said the victim’s mother went to Keighley police station on several occasions to report her missing. However, officers “did not do anything about it”.
The judge added: “To differing degrees, the social services and police response to the situation the girls found themselves in was that they were the authoresses of their own misfortune.”
He said the girls were plied with drugs and alcohol as they were passed between numerous men, “virtually all of whom were of Asian heritage”, in the town in the 1990s, when they were in their early teens.
The girls each had “unhappy home lives” and one was bullied in school.
Judge Nadim said this left them “vulnerable to sexual exploitation” and the “lure of older men that other girls wanted to be with”.
According to the judge, the victims wrongly thought they were getting the “compassion, care and attention” they were lacking at home, but this turned into rape and abuse.
One of the girls was raped twice by Hussain in a basement after he plied her with heroin.
She was also raped on a school field by Fayaz Ahmed after he met her when he was introduced by a man and woman who were operating her as a sex worker.
The judge said: “The message must go out loud and clear that the criminal justice system will do all it can to protect young and vulnerable members of our community.”
He said he hoped the girls would find it a “comfort to know that their voices, at long last, have been heard”.
Ibrar Hussain was jailed for six and a half years.
Imtiaz Ahmed and Fayaz Ahmed were sentenced in their absence. They are believed to be abroad.
Michael Quinn, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men’s actions were “wicked, vile and sordid”.
He said: “These convictions send a very clear message that the CPS, working alongside law enforcement colleagues, will relentlessly pursue justice for victims and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, whenever that abuse took place.”
Five other members of the grooming gang were jailed following a previous trial in October 2023.
The longest sentence was given to Mohammed Din, who was jailed for 14 years for 11 counts of rape. He is the only one of the eight defendants who was convicted of raping both the girls.
All the other convictions related to one of the girls.
Those sentenced in October 2023 were:
- Amreaz Asghar – jailed for four-and-a-half years for rape
- Perwaz Asghar – jailed for six-and-a-half years for two indecent assaults
- Sajid Mahmood Khan – jailed for three years for rape
- Zehroon Razak – jailed for six-and-a-half years for rape.
A 47-year-old man was found not fit to stand trial. A trial of facts took place and concluded that he did commit the act involved in the rape charge. He will be sentenced at a later date.
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