Grooming gang members given jail terms

A group of eight men who were part of a West Yorkshire grooming gang in the late 1990s have been jailed.

Three men – Ibrar Hussain, 47, and brothers Imtiaz Ahmed, 62, and Faiyaz Ahmed, 45 – all from Keighley, were sentenced for rape at Bradford Crown Court on Friday.

Following a trial in November and December 2024 he was found guilty of assaulting a girl.

Last year, five other people were jailed for their involvement. Reporting restrictions on the case have now been lifted, meaning details can be published.

The court heard that the criminals had targeted two children.

Hussain and Imtiaz and Faiyaz Ahmed were all sentenced for raping a girl who was aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the crime.

Catherine Duffy, prosecuting, described the girl as “extremely vulnerable and isolated at the time she was targeted.”

In a victim impact statement, the woman, now 40, said: “If I had been listened to sooner rather than later, then maybe, just maybe, my life would have been different.

“I’ve been through a lot, at a very young age, and I’m still trying to heal the trauma that other people have given me.”

Judge Ahmed Nadeem said the girl’s mother had tried “several times” to report her missing to police, but nothing was done.

Judge Nadeem said that the police and social services were “either inadequately equipped to properly understand what is happening at street level”, or “are indifferent to addressing (the victims’) needs”.

He said, “The reaction of social services and the police to varying degrees to the situation in which they found themselves was that they were the authors of their own misfortune.”

The victim said she was “bombarded with drugs and alcohol to numb the abuse”.

Giving evidence at the trial, she recalled an incident where men “lined up” in the corridor of a flat to have sex with her.

She said she was “groomed”, then “passed on to other men”, and later became addicted to alcohol and drugs, which she used as a “coping mechanism”.

“Nothing in this world can compensate for the loss I suffered – because of them I lost my identity.”

Hussain, of Mornington Street, was jailed for six-and-a-half years for two counts of rape, to be served concurrently.

Judge Nadeem told during the hearing that he gave heroin to the girl and had sex with her twice. At that time his age was between 18 and 19 years.

Mitigating, Jayne Beckett said that Hussain, who later spent time in prison for drug offences, was now married and had children and was a “very, very, very different man” from his local Was connected to mosque and school.

Judge Nadeem told Hussain that his crimes “have come back to haunt you and those who hold you dearly”.

He said: “The message must go out loud and clear that the criminal justice system will do everything possible to protect the young and vulnerable members of our community.”

Before being led away to begin his sentence, Hussain smiled and waved at his family members in the public gallery.

The court heard Imtiaz and Faiyaz Ahmed absconded during a retrial last year and are believed to be abroad.

Former Devonshire Street resident Faiyaz Ahmed was jailed in his absence for seven-and-a-half years on two counts of rape.

Former Dawson Road resident Imtiaz Ahmed was jailed in his absence for nine years in a rape case.

Judge Nadeem said the brothers were introduced to the victim through a couple who “exerted control” over her.

“They put her out there to work as a sex worker,” he told the court.

The court heard Imtiaz Ahmed was 35 and married and had children when he raped the girl in an empty flat above a shop owned by his family.

Judge Nadeem said that his “pretense of being a family and community man was nothing more than a mere pretense”.

Fayaz Ahmed, who had dismissed his lawyers before going on the run, accompanied the girl and another man to either “the school grounds or some forest”, where they took turns to rape her.

Her vulnerability was known to Fayez, who the court heard was aged 17 or 18 at the time of the offences.

After sentencing the three men, Judge Nadeem said he hoped the sentences would give victims “the comfort of knowing that their voices have finally been heard”.

He said, “They have had to walk a painful and difficult path. I commend them both for their courage and perseverance.”

In a statement released after Friday’s hearing, West Yorkshire Police revealed the names of the five people to be convicted in 2023:

• Amreez Asghar, 47, from Keighley, was jailed for four years and six months for rape
• Parwaz Asghar, 50, of Nottingham, was jailed for six years and six months for two indecent assaults
• Mohammed Din, 47, of Keighley, was sentenced to 14 years for 11 counts of rape
• Sajid Mahmood Khan, 45, from Keighley, jailed for three years for rape
• Zahrun Razak, 47, also from Keighley, was jailed for six years, six months for rape.

The force said all five were convicted of crimes against the first victim except Deen, who was convicted of raping both girls.

Det Ch Insp Vicki Greenbank said: “Cases like this are incredibly sensitive and complex and it has taken years of rigorous investigation to bring them before the courts.”

He praised both victims for coming forward and said they had both shown “immense patience” in the investigation and “courage” through the court process.

The force said bench warrants had been issued for the arrest of Imtiaz Ahmed and Faiyaz Ahmed.

On Thursday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a three-month “Rapid Audit” Given “the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country”.

Cooper said the review would look at “ethnicity data and the demographics of the gangs involved and their victims”, and “cultural and social drivers”.

He said the Government would also support “victim-centred” local inquiries in Oldham and four other “pilot” areas.

It comes after opposition parties including Keighley and Ilkley’s Conservative MP Robbie Moore called for a fresh investigation into grooming gangs.

Moore said that “Many people, including myself, are fearful that the scale of the issue in the Bradford district will be reduced to the scale of Rotherham”.

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