Grooming gang guilty of raping and abusing girls

Seven men have been found guilty of sexually exploiting two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped and assaulted in Rochdale for five years.

The gang was convicted at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court of various sexual offences against the girls between 2001 and 2006.

The victims, known as Girl A and Girl B, were groomed from the age of 13 and treated as "sex slaves", being expected to "have sex with the men whenever and wherever they wanted", the trial heard.

Girl A told the jury she had been targeted by more than 200 men, while Girl B said social workers had regarded her as "a prostitute" from the age of 10.

The court heard that both girls had "deeply troubled home lives" and were plied with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and given places to stay by the men, who worked on the town's market or as taxi drivers.

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 going on but "weren't concerned enough to do anything about it".

"It was in my file, when I looked it up. I read it," the woman, now aged in her 30s, told the court.

"I was picked up by the police for loitering and prostituting from the age of 10."

Three of the abusers, Mohammed Zahid, 64, the leader of the gang, Mustaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, were stallholders on the market.

Father-of-three Zahid, who was known as Boss Man, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to the girls, who did not know each other.

He also gifted them with money, alcohol and food in return for the expectation of regular sex with him and his friends, the court heard.

In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.

Bashir did not attend the current trial after he absconded while on bail before the trial got under way.

It can now be reported that Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, and Nisar Hussain, 41, were remanded in custody in January.

Police received intelligence that the three taxi drivers, who were born in Rochdale, were planning to leave the UK and had already paid a deposit for their transport.

The seventh defendant Roheez Khan, 39, also featured in another previous Rochdale grooming trial in 2013.

He was ailed for six-and-a-half years as one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a "profoundly vulnerable" 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009.

During the latest trial, a second jury was required after concerns that one original juror - thought to be an ex-police officer - might be racist.

The prosecution did not oppose the application and a second jury was sworn in shortly after.

Jurors deliberated for three weeks before delivering their unanimous guilty verdicts.

• Zahid, of, Station Road, Crumpsall, was convicted of raping Girl A and Girl B, offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex
• Ahmed, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, and Bashir, of Napier Street East, Oldham, were convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B
• Shahzad, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale, Akram, of Manley Road, Rochdale, Hussain, of New Field Close, Rochdale, and Khan, of Athole Street, Rochdale, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A
• Khan was found guilty of a single count of rape against Girl A

During the trial the prosecution offered no evidence against an eighth defendant, Arfan Khan, 41, of Rochdale, who was cleared of various sexual offences.