Eight men of Muslim, Pakistani origins were sentenced on Friday for the rape and abuse of vulnerable girls in Rotherham.
The men were jailed for 16 offences from 1999 to 2003 against multiple girls who were said by the judge to have been “targeted, sexualised, and subjected to degrading and violent acts”. The sentencing follows convictions earlier October in the second of two linked trials at Sheffield Crown Court.
One of those sentenced, Sageer Hussain, 31, was jailed for 19 years for repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl.
The Times reports that Hussain was the youngest of four brothers, each of whom has been convicted this year of numerous grooming and rape offences in the South Yorkshire town.
In a trial that ended in February, his three brothers had been jailed for grooming, raping, and sexually assaulting 15 girls. Arshid Hussain, 41, the ringleader of the gang, was jailed for 35 years. His brothers, Basharat Hussain, 40, and Bannaras Hussain, 37, were sentenced to 25 years and 19 years respectively.
On Friday, the court had heard that Sageer Hussain told his child victim that “all white girls” were “slags” and “worthless” except for sex.
Peter Mann, Head of the Complex Casework Unit of Yorkshire and Humberside Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Sageer Hussain, in particular, took a leading role in befriending the young girls, and in the case of one victim, passed her on to his friends and other associates, assisted in various ways by the other defendants.”
Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Wright told Sageer that he had conducted a “campaign of violent rape”.
She told the eight men: “The victim of all eight of you was vulnerable. She was just 13 to 14 years old.
“Although she had a loving and supportive family and was doing well at school as she was reaching adolescence, she was susceptible to the attention that you and others gave her. The childhood and adolescence of each of the victims can never be reclaimed.”
The gang targetted, abused, and trafficked girls for sex with impunity whilst child protection services and police ignored the grooming of young white teenagers by mostly-Muslim men.
Basharat Hussain was sentenced to seven years for indecent assault to run concurrently with his other 25-year sentence. The six other rapists, including two of the Hussains’ cousins, were given sentences of 17 years, 15 years, 13 years, 12 years, eight years, and five years for offences including rape, indecent assault, and false imprisonment.