Reporting Restrictions Blocked Police from Launching Public Appeal for Absconded Gang Rapist

A public appeal for information on a defendant in the Huddersfield grooming gang trial who absconded on bail while the jury considered its verdicts could not be issued because of reporting restrictions, West Yorkshire Police told Breitbart London.

Sajid Hussain, 33, was on trial at Leeds Crown Court with 19 other defendants for the grooming and rape of young girls and teens between 2004 and 2011 when the 15 victims were aged between 11 and 17.

Hussain was granted bail in June and went missing the day after the jury began deliberation.

Although he surrendered his passport as part of his bail conditions, it is believed that he fled abroad.

In his absence, he was found guilty of two counts of rape and sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment.

According to Examiner Live, the Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told the jury after they had delivered their verdicts: “Sajid Hussain has, as they would say in the films, done a runner.”

A warrant is out for his arrest, but West Yorkshire Police told Breitbart London that they could not issue a public appeal for information on his whereabouts because “strict reporting restrictions [were] in place on all of the defendants involved”.

Reporting restrictions on the trial, which opened in January, were only lifted on October 19th when all 20 men of ‘Asian’ background had been found guilty. Four are yet to be sentenced.

Despite public interest, the media was completely blocked from reporting the trial, with activist Tommy Robinson being imprisoned after reporting details on social media in May.

There was also a media ban put in place on reporting about Robinson’s imprisonment, only lifted following a legal challenge by a group a media organisations.

The absconded rapist, nicknamed ‘Fish’, was in his early twenties and working in a shop when he vaginally and orally raped the victim identified as ‘Girl A’, who was only 14 at the time.

On Monday, Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman expressed anger that Hussain was granted bail, saying: “These crimes are horrendous and this man should never be allowed out on bail. I shall certainly be in touch with the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police.”

“What on earth is going on in our system of border controls? Police have told me about people using borrowed passports and that proper checks were not being carried out,” he added.