"They were abused, degraded and then discarded."
A grooming gang ringleader who raped two schoolgirls in Rochdale has been jailed for 35 years.
Mohammed Zahid, known as Boss Man, gave the girls free underwear from his market stall, expecting regular sex for him and his friends in return.
The 65-year-old father-of-three, who showed a “chilling disregard” for the girls, was one of seven men convicted in June of committing a series of sexual offences between 2001 and 2006.
Mushtaq Ahmed, Kasir Bashir, Mohammed Shahzad, Naheem Akram, Nisar Hussain and Roheez Khan also received lengthy prison sentences at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
The court heard how the girls, referred to as Girl A and Girl B, were sexually exploited from the age of 13 in filthy flats, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses in the Greater Manchester town.
They were treated as “sex slaves” and expected to “have sex with the men whenever and wherever they wanted”.
Both girls, who were not known to each other, had “deeply troubled home lives” and were plied with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and given places to stay by the men, the court was told.
During sentencing, Judge Jonathan Seely said the girls’ treatment at the hands of the “predatory” men was “appalling”.
He said: “They were abused, degraded and then discarded.
“It would have been obvious to these men that they craved the attention that their home lives didn’t provide.
“They felt they had little or no choice but to submit to the almost incessant sexual abuse meted out to them.”
The court heard the paedophiles all worked either at the market or as taxi drivers.
Girl A told the jury she may have been preyed on by hundreds of men as her phone number was passed around, adding “there was that many, it was hard to keep count”.
She told local children’s services in 2004 that she was “hanging around” with groups of older men, drinking and smoking cannabis.
Girl B, who was living in a children’s home when she came into contact with the men on the market, said police and social workers knew what was happening but “weren’t concerned enough to do anything about it”.
The victim, now aged in her 30s, said: “It was in my file, when I looked it up. I read it.
“I was picked up by the police for loitering and prostituting from the age of 10.”
Social services and police have previously apologised for their failings regarding the girls.
The sentences were:
- Pakistan-born Mohammed Zahid was jailed for 35 years.
- Mushtaq Ahmed was jailed for 27 years.
- Kasir Bashir was jailed for 29 years.
- Mohammed Shahzad was jailed for 26 years.
- Naheem Akram was jailed for 26 years.
- Nisar Hussain was jailed for 19 years.
- Roheez Khan was jailed for 12 years.
In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years after he was convicted of engaging in sexual activity in 2005 and 2006 with a 14-year-old girl whom he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.
Bashir was sentenced in his absence after he absconded while on bail before the trial started.
Detective Chief Inspector Guy Laycock, from Greater Manchester Police, said the men “preyed on the girls’ vulnerability for their own depraved sexual gain”.
He said:
“This horrific abuse knew no limits, despite their denials throughout this lengthy investigation and court case.”
“They had a callous disregard for these women when they were girls and continue to show no remorse for their unforgivable actions all these years later.”
Liz Fell, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men exploited the teenagers’ “difficult circumstances” and praised them for coming forward.
She added: “Both victims have shown an enormous amount of strength and dignity throughout what has been a lengthy and challenging legal process.”
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