More “Asian” grooming gang members have been sentenced for raping girls aged 13 and 14 in Huddersfield, England.
Only four of the seven convicted men were named in a West Yorkshire Police statement on the sentencing, with another remaining anonymous for undisclosed reasons — possibly because they are involved in further cases which are subject to reporting restrictions.
Sentencing judge Geoffrey Marson QC said the abuse was “planned by a large group of Asian men” — in British parlance “Asian” typically refers to people with South Asian roots — and that it was “likely many of these girls will never recover from the abuse they suffered.”
“The way they were abused defies understanding, and was wild and wicked,” he said in comments reported by local media.
The sentences for the four named men were listed by West Yorkshire Police as follows:
Usman Ali (34) of Park Drive, Huddersfield, who was sentenced to eight years in custody after being found guilty of two offences of rape against one victim
Gul Riaz (43) of Balmoral Avenue, Huddersfield, was sentenced to 15 years after being found guilty of an offence of rape and two indecent assaults against one victim and a rape offence against the other
Banaras Hussain (39) of Scarborough Road, Shipley, was sentenced to nine and a half years after being found guilty of an offence of rape against one victim
Abdul Majid (36) of Lightcliffe Road, Huddersfield was sentenced to 11 years after being found guilty of two offences of rape against one victim
The sentences for the three unnamed men were revealed in the same statement:
A 36-year-old Huddersfield man was sentenced to eight years after being found guilty of an offence of rape against one victim
A 30-year-old Huddersfield man was sentenced to four years after being found guilty of an offence of rape against one victim
A 37-year-old Huddersfield was sentenced to eight years on February 20 after being found guilty of an offence of rape against one victim
“The sentences handed down to these men today reflect the depravity of their actions and I hope it will bring some comfort to their victims to see them jailed,” commented Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Richard McNamara of the Kirklees District unit of West Yorkshire Police.
“Their actions in targeting and sexually abusing these very young and vulnerable girls were utterly despicable and I am very pleased the courts have recognised this and put them behind bars for a number of years.
However, the police force’s claim that the grooming gang has been ” jailed for a combined 63 and a half years”, echoed in local media headlines suggesting they have been “caged for decades”, would be regarded by many members of the public as disingenuous.
Sentences are of course served on an individual basis, not collectively — and not one of them has received a sentence as long as 20 years — the bare minimum for “decades” — let alone 63 years.
Moreover, it is standard practice in the English criminal justice system for the vast majority of criminals sentenced to non-“life” sentences — which themselves almost never involve actually spending one’s life in custody — are entitled to release on licence halfway through their terms, automatically, without so much as a parole hearing.
This would mean the unnamed groomer sentenced to four years for rape will be back on the streets after two — a very far cry from 63 years.
Some criminals do receive special extended sentences which mandate release slightly further through the term — typically the two-thirds point — subject to a parole hearing, but the West Yorkshire Police statement on does not indicate that this was the case for the seven Huddersfield groomers.
It is also possible that the longer sentences for people sentenced for multiple crimes are misleading, as they may be an aggregate of multiple individual terms “to be served concurrently” — i.e. at the same time, rendering all but the longest essentially meaningless.
Breitbart London has contacted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to clarify the situation.