Six 'predatory' men who groomed and raped teenage girls are jailed
Six men convicted of sexually exploiting young girls in Huddersfield have been jailed.
The men “robbed their victims of their childhood and abused them in truly appalling ways”, police said.
The two teenage victims were “systematically groomed and exploited” by the men who “viewed the girls as merely objects, to be used and abused at will”, according to prosecutors.
Gul Riaz, 43, of Balmoral Avenue, Huddersfield, was found guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Abdul Majid, 36, of Lightcliffe Road, Huddersfield, was found guilty of two counts of rape and received 11 years in prison.
Banaras Hussain, 39, of Scarborough Road, Shipley, was found guilty of one count of rape and sentenced to nine and a half years behind bars.
Usman Ali, 34, of Park Drive, Huddersfield, was found guilty on Tuesday of two counts of rape and given eight years.
Two men who cannot be named for legal reasons were each found guilty of one count of rape and sentenced to eight and four years.
Another man was found guilty of rape during the trial, but will be sentenced on Thursday.
The offences took place between 1995 and 2011.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC described how the men convicted as part of West Yorkshire Police’s investigation into child sex exploitation targeted girls because of their vulnerability.
He said they created a relationship of trust that allowed “predatory men to perpetrate gross sexual abuse for their own perverted gratification”.
The judge said: “They were planned offences by a large group of Asian men.
“It is likely many of these girls will never recover from the abuse they suffered.”
He added: “It is clear that both have been and remain profoundly affected by the abuse which ended some years ago.”
He continued: “The way these girls were treated defies understanding. The abuse was vile and wicked.”
Police said the girls were aged 14 and 13 when the grooming began, with one coming to the group’s attention during her paper round. They were controlled by violence or threat of violence against themselves and their families.
One girl would go missing and return home under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the jury had heard, sometimes naked on her lower half and with injuries.
She was raped by every defendant in the case, often too drunk to be capable of consenting to sexual activity and sometimes with other people present.
The judge said she was raped by Usman Ali in his car, who was “rough and aggressive” and left her in tears, while Abdul Majid raped her numerous times, often threatening to not take her home unless she had sex with him.
The second victim was regularly plied with drugs and alcohol “in order to facilitate the gross sexual abuse by the older men”.
Judge Marson said she was indecently assaulted and raped by Gul Riaz, who plied her with vodka at her father’s flat.
Reading their victim impact statements, Andrea Parnham, prosecuting, said the second victim tried to report the abuse to police in 1997.
Ms Parnham said: “She kept it buried for 22 years. She tried to report an incident in 1997 but she was disbelieved and felt let down by them.”
She said the woman suffers from nightmares, flashbacks, PTSD and anxiety and said coming forward after so many years has been “hell”.
The other woman suffers from PTSD, depression and bulimia.
Ms Parnham said: “Her childhood has been taken away from her. She was a bright and wacky kid but that’s all changed.”
Detective Chief Inspector Richard McNamara, from West Yorkshire Police, said: “The men involved in these vile offences have robbed their victims of their childhood and abused them in truly appalling ways.”
Michael Quinn, head of the Complex Casework Unit at CPS Yorkshire and Humberside, said: “These men systematically groomed and exploited the girls for their own sexual gratification.
“Their abusers viewed the girls as merely objects, to be used and abused at will,” he added.
The trial, which finished on Tuesday, is the sixth to come out of the West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea investigation into child sexual exploitation.
The guilty verdicts at Leeds Crown Court means the total number of men convicted in Huddersfield from Tendersea jumps to 34.
The 27 men already convicted have received more than 322 years in prison.
