Five members of a child rape grooming gang in Rochdale have been jailed collectively for over 70 years for sexually exploiting two young girls in the northern English city.
Mohammed Ghani, Jahn Shahid Ghani, Insar Hussain, Ali Razza Hussain Kasmi, and Martin Rhodes, who were convicted earlier this year on a range of sexual offences against two girls, aged 13 and 14 at the time, have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 20 years behind bars.
The two girls, who remain anonymous due to court restrictions, were routinely taken to an apartment in Rochdale known as the “butcher’s flat” where they were plied with alcohol and drugs, including ecstasy and marijuana, before being passed from man to man, the Daily Mail reported.
The abuse, which began in 2002 and continued until 2006, started when Girl A was lured into the grips of the grooming gang by Mohammed Ghani, who would have sex with the girls before passing them on to his fellow groomers.
In addition to being repeatedly raped, one of the girl victims also suffered the “degradation” of being filmed by the men when she passed out after drinking too much vodka. The men sexually assaulted the young girl with a bottle as they laughed. The video was subsequently widely shared around Rochdale.
The abuse was first revealed in 2015 when Girl A told parenting course workers that she had been “beaten and raped” as a child, saying: “I was abused daily for six years. I was 12 when they began to abuse me, feeding me alcohol and drugs, abuse me and pass me on to their friends.”
She said that the men would do “as they pleased” with her, using the explicit videos they made of her to blackmail her into further sexual abuse. She added that if she refused, they would physically beat and rape her.
In one grim incident, she told the Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester that one man urinated on her as she was force to perform oral sex on another.
The court heard that the two young girls were often picked up from their schools, while still in uniform, by members of the grooming gang, who even were said to have sexually assaulted them on school grounds as well as in public parks, cars, and flats in Rochdale.
During the sentencing this week, Judge Tina Landale told the defendants: “Your cases, together and individually resulted in appalling abuse of two young women who were children when you offended against them.
“They were both, immature, naive children, who were loved by their families. Each girl was a child, ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous older men.
“Your behaviour was highly predatory, controlling and manipulative. You each hooked them and used them for your own sexual pleasure.”
Jahn Shahid Ghani, 50, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on six counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. Mohammed Ghani, 39, was sentenced to 14 years for five counts of sexual assault. Insar Hussain, 38, was sentenced to 17 years behind bars for one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault. Ali Razza Hussain Kazmi, 36, was sentenced to eight years for one count of rape and two counts of sexual intercourse with a child. Martin Rhodes, 39, was sentenced to 12 years and six months on four counts of sexual assault.