Police in Keighley, West Yorkshire have charged 14 men and a 16-year-old boy with sex offences including the rape of a girl under the age of 16. The offences relate primarily to one female victim, with one allegation involving a second who was also under 16 at the time.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2012. In echoes of the recent Rotherham grooming case, the 15 males, all with Muslim names, are due to appear before Bradford Magistrates Court on 30 June.
The 16-year-old cannot be named for legal reasons, but the 14 men have been named as:
Sufyan Ziarab, 22, of Keighley, charged with two counts of rape.
Yasser Kabir, 24, of Keighley, charged with four counts of rape.
Bilal Ziarab, 20, of Bradford, charged with two counts of rape.
Tauqeer Hussain, 22, of Keighley, charged with four counts of rape.
Israr Ali, 19, of Keighley, charged with two counts rape.
Rohail Iqbal, 21, of Keighley, charged with rape.
Rohail Hussain, 18, of Keighley, charged with rape.
Nasir Khan, 23, of Keighley, charged with three counts of rape.
Saqib Younis, 28, of Keighley, charged with two counts of rape.
Hussain Sardar, 18, of Keighley, charged with two counts of rape.
Zain Ali, 20, of Keighley, charged with two counts of rape.
Faisal Khan, 26, of Keighley, charged with two counts of rape.
Khalid Raja Mahmood, 34, of Keighley, charged with five counts rape.
Mohamed Akram, 62, of Keighley, charged with sexual activity with a child under 16.
Last September, the Telegraph and Argus reported that 28 men had been arrested in Keighley for alleged offences against four girls as police investigated allegations of child sexual exploitation.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police confirmed to Breitbart London that yesterday’s charges are related to those arrests, adding that arrests had been ongoing since 2012.
A total of 54 suspects were arrested across the Bradford district, of which Keighley is part, in the five months from October 2012. They followed the conviction of Shazad Rehman and Bilal Hussain for raping a 14-year-old girl “one after the other”, as well as raping other teenage girls after luring them into cars. Rehman was jailed for 18 and a half years while Hussain was sentenced to 17 and a half years.
At the time, Chief Superintendent Angela Williams said that police were aware of networks that exist between groups of child abusers.
“Obviously I cannot discuss ongoing cases, but we are aware of networks and how those involved work in an organised and deliberate fashion.”
The arrests follows the story of 1400 young, predominantly white girls who were systematically groomed and raped at the hands of mostly Pakistani men in Rotherham, 50 miles from Keighley.
It has been suggested that authorities routinely turn blind eyes to these cases for fear of being labelled “racist”.
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