A grooming gang ringleader and six of his accomplices were handed jail sentences in a case that highlighted serious government failings, including where the social care system branded a 10-year-old girl a prostitute and did nothing to help her.
Seven men, all Rochdale market traders or taxi drivers, have been handed jail sentences after they groomed young girls between 2001 and 2006 to become “sex slaves”. The girls were “passed around” between the men and hundreds of others for “almost incessant sexual abuse” for years, the court was told.
Mohammed “Boss Man” Zahid, 64, identified as the ringleader of this group, ran a lingerie stall at the Rochdale town market, which he used to meet young girls out shopping, before showering them with gifts as part of the so-called grooming process to make them sexual slaves, the court heard.
Zahid, a Pakistani migrant male, had previously been jailed for five years in 2016 for a separate grooming gang case over sex with a child who, again, he’d met through his market stall. In that case, she had gone to the stall to buy tights for her school uniform.
During the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the court heard how Zahid felt so “untouchable” that he brazenly telephoned a social services home for children where one of his victims lived, picked her up from there for abuse, and would later drop her off again, all without fear of questions being asked. Zahid and his friends would take the girls to locations around Rochdale for sex, with ‘Girl A’ telling the court that she had been abused by “hundreds of men”.
While the court case revealed the depravity of the rapists, it also unveiled the appalling failures of what is called the care system. ‘Girl B’, now an adult in her 30s, discovered in her local authority case notes that when she was just 10 years old, the care system had her labelled as a prostitute, yet took no steps to protect her. As she put it, nobody was “concerned enough to do anything about it… They were the ones supposed to care for me and look after me and a lot of bad things happened”.
The Manchester Crown Court sentenced on Wednesday:
Pakistani-born market trader Mohammed “Boss Man” Zahid to 35 years in prison. Zahid had been found guilty of 10 counts of rape, four of indecency with a child, one of attempting to procure a girl for unlawful sexual intercourse, and five of procuring a girl for unlawful sexual intercourse.
50-year-old Pakistani-born market trader Kasir Bashir was sentenced in absentia, given that he wasn’t held in pre-trial custody and was able to abscond. His UK passport was taken away as part of his bail conditions, but it is nevertheless thought that he has left the country. Police said “enquiries continue to try and locate him and ensure justice is served.”
Bashir was given 29 years in prison, which he will serve if ever found. He was found guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of indecency with a child.
67-year-old Pakistani-born market trader Mushtaq Ahmed was sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was found guilty of four counts of rape, four counts of indecency with a child, and one count of procuring a girl for unlawful sexual intercourse.
39-year-old Roheez Khan was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was found guilty of one count of rape.
44-year-old taxi driver Mohammed Shahzad was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He was found guilty of five counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration.
41-year-old taxi driver Nissar Hussain was sentenced to 19 years in prison. He was found guilty of two counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration.
49-year-old taxi driver Naheem Akram was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He was found guilty of six counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration.
All men denied all charges and were said by police to have shown no remorse.
Greater Manchester Police hailed the convictions, saying they now had seen 32 offenders “brought to justice” and a further 20 men due to come to trial in the coming months.
Detective Chief Inspector Guy Laycock said of the case: “These seven men preyed on vulnerability for their own depraved sexual gain. The men abused, degraded and then discarded the victims when they were just children. This horrific abuse knew no limits, despite their denials throughout this lengthy investigation and court case.”
Rochdale Borough Council, which runs the social services implicated in the case, insisted that things had changed. A spokesman said for the council: “Rochdale Borough Council is in a very different place to where it once was more than a decade ago, and our work to improve our safeguarding practice and our response to child sexual exploitation has been recognised in every Ofsted inspection since 2014.
“We will not be complacent, however, and we remain committed to doing all that we can with our partners to protect and support victims and survivors.”
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