Halifax child sex abuse ring

Last updated

The Halifax child sex abuse ring was a group of men who committed serious sexual offences against under-aged girls in the English town of Halifax and city of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It was the largest child sexual exploitation investigation in the United Kingdom. In 2016, the perpetrators were found guilty of rape and other crimes in several separate trials at Leeds Crown Court. [1] In total, as many as a hundred men may have been involved in child abuse. Twenty-five suspects were charged by West Yorkshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service and 18 of these were found guilty, totalling over 175 years of prison time. [2] [3] A further nine men were convicted in February 2019 for grooming two underage girls in Bradford and sentenced to over 130 years in prison. [4] The majority of those charged and later convicted come from the town's Asian community; there were fears that their arrests might impact race relations in the town. [5]

Contents

In December 2017, Quilliam released a report entitled "Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation – Dissecting Grooming Gangs", concluding that 84% of offenders were of South Asian heritage. [6] This review was criticised for its alleged poor methodology by Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, in their paper "Failing victims, fuelling hate: challenging the harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' narrative" which was published in January 2020. [7] In December that year, a further report by the Home Office was released, showing that 30% of CSE gangs were composed of white and 28% of "Asian" people. However it was also found that some studies suggest an over-representation of Black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations. [8]

Writing in The Guardian , Cockbain and Tufail wrote of the report that "The two-year study by the Home Office makes very clear that there are no grounds for asserting that Muslim or Pakistani-heritage men are disproportionately engaged in such crimes, and, citing our research, it confirmed the unreliability of the Quilliam claim". [9]

Crimes

The principal victim was identified as "Jeanette" in government reports. [10] The prosecution said that the girl, who was 13 when the abuse first began, came from a troubled family background and was “lonely [and] needy”. [3] The gang exploited her desire for friendship and love, deliberately giving her drink and drugs to turn her into an addict and make her more easily controlled. In interviews with the police, she described being raped and abused in many different locations, including private homes in Halifax, Bradford and Manchester, and hotels in Bradford, Leeds and London. [3] The abuse took place between 2006 and 2011. [11]

"Jeanette" believed that she was abused by at least a hundred men, often more than once a day and once by nineteen men over a short time. She was infected with gonorrhoea as result of the abuse and suffered permanent psychological harm. [3] Although she knew many of the men only by their nicknames, the police were able to identify them using CCTV footage from the hotels in which she was abused and by analysing male DNA in stains found on her clothing. [3]

Police said it was the largest child sexual exploitation investigation in the country – "bigger than high profile cases in Rochdale and Rotherham." [12]

Calderdale board report and West Yorkshire police apology

The November 2016 board report found that three agencies failed to protect "Jeanette". West Yorkshire police apologized, saying "We would firstly like to apologise to the victim for the failings of West Yorkshire police." [13]

The gang members were arrested in May 2013. [14] There were three separate trials in the first half of 2016. Thirteen men received prison sentences adding up to over 150 years. [15]

Judge's comments

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC harshly criticised the guilty men for committing gross abuse on obviously vulnerable girls. He condemned them for not showing “the slightest remorse” for their behaviour and for the way in which they had inflicted pain, humiliation and degradation on a victim whom they had deliberately incapacitated with drink and drugs. He said that they had inflicted permanent psychological harm on the girl, acting without concern or feelings for anything but their own sexual gratification. [3]

2018 arrests for same case

In early January 2018, 20 additional men were arrested as a result of investigations into the same case. [16]

Verdicts and sentences

Those found guilty in June 2016 and their sentences were as follows: [1]

ForenameSurnameAgeOfCharges
HedarAli36Bradford25 years for rape and trafficking for sexual exploitation
HaiderAli41Halifax20 years for sexual activity with a child and causing a person to engage in sexual activity
KhalidZaman38Bradford17 and a half years for rape and supplying class B drugs
MohammedRamzan35Bradford15 years for rape
HaarisAhmed32Halifax12 and a half years for sexual activity with a child and supplying class B drugs
TahirMahmood43Halifax11 years for sexual activity with a child and sexual assault
TaukeerButt31Halifax10 years for sexual activity with a child
Amaar AliDitta27Halifax9 years for sexual activity with a child
AzeemSubhani25Halifax9 years for sexual activity with a child
TalibSaddiq31Halifax8 years for sexual activity with a child
SikanderMalik31Halifax7 years for sexual activity with a child
Mohammed AliAhmed43Halifax6 and a half years for sexual activity with a child
AftabHussain37Halifax6 years for sexual activity with a child
MansoorAkhtar25Huddersfield6 years for sexual activity with a child and supplying Class B drugs
SikanderIshaq31Halifax6 years for sexual activity with a child
FurqaanGhafar31Derby5 years and three months after he admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child. [17]
AesanPervez27Halifax4 years. Convicted by a jury after a trial at Leeds Crown Court on one charge of sexual assault on the girl [17]

An 18th member of the ring was jailed for 10 months for supplying class B drugs

Those found guilty in February 2019 and their sentences were as follows: [4]

ForenameSurnameAgeOfCharges
SaeedAkhtar55Bradford20 years for two counts of inciting child prostitution and rape
BasharatKhaliq38Bradford20 years for five counts of rape and assault by penetration
ParvazeAhmed36Bradford17 years for three counts of rape
NaveedAkhtar43Bradford17 years for two counts of rape
KieranHarris28Dewsbury17 years for two counts of rape
MohammedUsman31Bradford17 years for two counts of rape
IzarHussain32Bradford16 years for rape and attempted rape
FaheemIqbal27No fixed abode7 years for aiding and abetting rape
ZeeshanAli32Bradford18 months for sexual assault

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child grooming</span> Connecting with children for sexual abuse

Child grooming refers to actions or behaviors used to establish an emotional connection with a child under the age of consent, and sometimes the child's family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. Child grooming can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts."

The relationship between race and crime in the United Kingdom is the subject of academic studies, government surveys, media coverage, and public concern. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1991, section 95, the government collects annual statistics based on race and crime.

The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012. This resulted in Greater Manchester Police launching Operation Doublet to investigate further claims of abuse with 19 men so far being convicted. Forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation during the police investigation. The men were British Pakistanis, which led to discussion on whether the failure to investigate them was linked to the authorities' fear of being accused of racial prejudice. The girls were mainly White British.

North Preston's Finest, also known as NPF, the Scotians, or the North Preston gang, is a gang of pimps based in North Preston, a satellite of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The Derby child sex abuse ring was a group of men who sexually abused up to a hundred girls in Derby, England. In 2010, after an undercover investigation by Derbyshire police, members of the ring were charged with 75 offences relating to 26 girls. Nine of the 13 accused were convicted of grooming and raping girls between 12 and 18 years old. The attacks provoked fierce discussion about race and sexual exploitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal</span> Organised child sexual abuse scandal in Rotherham, England between the 1970s and present

The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until present and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period. Researcher Angie Heal, who was hired by local officials and warned them about child exploitation occurring between 2002 and 2007, has since described it as the "biggest child protection scandal in UK history". Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early 1990s, when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. From at least 2001, multiple reports passed names of alleged perpetrators, several from one family, to the police and Rotherham Council. The first group conviction took place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16. From January 2011 Andrew Norfolk of The Times pressed the issue, reporting in 2012 that the abuse in the town was widespread and that the police and council had known about it for over ten years.

The Oxford child sex abuse ring was an alleged group of 22 men who were convicted of various sexual offences against underage girls in the English city of Oxford between 1998 and 2012. Thames Valley Police launched Operation Bullfinch in May 2011 to investigate allegations of historical sexual abuse, leading to ten men being convicted. Upon further allegations in 2015, Thames Valley Police then launched Operation Silk, resulting in ten more different men being convicted and Operation Spur which resulted in two more convictions. The term itself and the investigation has been heavily criticized by Muslims and Left Wing members for being highly racially motivated and Islamophobic. Some have put the blame on media and the police for ignoring such crimes if they really happened for so long Some have even questioned the narrative of grooming gangs as similar events elsewhere in India and Nigeria have instead been blamed as a conspiracy by right-wing Hindus and Christians.

The Telford child sexual exploitation scandal was a scandal in the United Kingdom. Originally, a group of men were convicted of grooming local children for sex between 2007 and 2009 in Telford in the English county of Shropshire. While media reports had suggested 100 or more girls had been affected and around 200 perpetrators were suspected, the Sunday Mirror reported in March 2018 that up to 1,000 girls may have been abused, with some even murdered, in incidents dating back to the 1970s. Social workers and police cast doubt on this report, denying that Telford had a "discernible problem compared to other towns".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom</span> Overview about child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom

Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom has been reported in the country throughout its history. In about 90% of cases the abuser is a person known to the child. However, cases during the second half of the twentieth century, involving religious institutions, schools, popular entertainers, politicians, military personnel, and other officials, have been revealed and widely publicised since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Child sexual abuse rings in numerous towns and cities across the UK have also drawn considerable attention.

The Bristol child sex abuse ring was a group of 13 men who committed sexual offences against underage teenage girls in Bristol, in Southwestern England. In November 2014, they were convicted of offences including rape, paying a child for sex, causing or inciting child prostitution, sexual acts with children and sex trafficking.

Operation Doublet is an investigation set up in 2012 by Greater Manchester Police into child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and other areas of Greater Manchester, England. It has resulted in 19 men being jailed for child sexual offences, rape and trafficking.

The Peterborough sex abuse case involved 10 men who committed sexual offences against under-aged girls, some as young as 12, in the English city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. In a series of trials in 2014 and 2015, they were found guilty of rape, child prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation. Police had been alerted by the Rotherham and Rochdale child abuse cases to the possibility of abuse taking place.

The Banbury child sex abuse ring was a group of six men who committed serious sexual offences against under-aged girls in the English town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. In March 2015, they were found guilty of offences including rape and sexual activity with a child over a period extending from 2009 to 2014. Police in Banbury had drawn on the lessons of Operation Bullfinch, which targeted sexual abuse in nearby Oxford.

The Keighley child sex abuse ring was a group of twelve men who committed serious sexual offences against two under-aged girls in the English town of Keighley and city of Bradford, West Yorkshire. In December 2015, they were found guilty of rape and other forms of sexual abuse by a unanimous jury verdict at Bradford Crown Court. They were sentenced in February 2016 to a total of 130 years in jail. The main victim, who had been targeted by ten of the men, was aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the attacks between 2011 and 2012. The alleged ringleader of the gang was named as local drug-dealer Ahmed Al-Arif Choudhury, who was not among those found guilty in court and is believed to have fled abroad.

The Newcastle sex abuse ring were a gang of seventeen men and a woman who sexually abused adolescent girls and young women from 2010 to 2014 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, after plying them with alcohol and drugs. The men were of Albanian, Kurdish, Bangladeshi, Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi, Eastern European and Pakistani heritage who were aged between 27 and 44. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 25.

The Huddersfield grooming gang was a group of men who were convicted of sexual offences against girls in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It is the largest gang ever convicted for sex abuse in the United Kingdom. The offences took place between 2004 and 2011, and the men were charged following the Operation Tendersea inquiry by the police. The trials began in April 2017 and 20 men were convicted in 2018 in three separate trials. Since then, further men have been convicted in a series of trials, bringing the total number of men convicted to 41 by August 2021.

Sammy Woodhouse is an English activist against child sexual abuse. She was a victim of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, which she helped expose by giving an anonymous interview to Andrew Norfolk of The Times. Woodhouse has actively supported pardoning child sexual abuse victims for crimes they were coerced into committing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Oliver</span>

Margaret Oliver is an English former Detective Constable with the Greater Manchester Police. She is known as a whistleblower for exposing the poor handling of the Rochdale child sex abuse ring case by her own force.

The Manchester child sex abuse ring was a group of men who committed serious sexual offences against under-aged girls in Manchester, England, between 2016 and 2018. Four members were jailed in September 2019, while others evaded arrest by fleeing the country.

References

  1. 1 2 "Calderdale gang jailed for grooming and abusing girls". BBC News . 17 June 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Last two men sentenced in Calderdale's biggest child sex abuse case". Halifax Courier. 24 June 2016. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018. Sentences imposed on the sexual offenders now total more than 175 years and an 18th man convicted only of supplying the girl with cannabis was also jailed for 10 months.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "How 100 men were able to prey on one vulnerable Halifax schoolgirl for two years". The Yorkshire Post . 17 June 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Nine jailed for abusing care home girls". 27 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  5. ↑ "Child sexual abuse ring in Halifax: 25 men charged - police reaction". Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  6. ↑ Barnes, Tom (10 December 2017). "British-Pakistani researchers say grooming gangs are 84% Asian". The Independent . Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  7. ↑ Cockbain, Ella; Tufail, Waqas (2020). "Failing victims, fuelling hate: Challenging the harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' narrative". Race & Class. 61 (3): 3–32. doi:10.1177/0306396819895727. S2CID   214197388.
  8. ↑ Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation Characteristics of Offending (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk (Report). December 2020. p. 42. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  9. ↑ Cockbain, Ella; Tufail, Waqas (19 December 2020). "A new Home Office report admits grooming gangs are not a 'Muslim problem' | Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  10. ↑ Nick Lavigueur (24 November 2016). "Chances missed to protect vulnerable girl from evil sex gang in Halifax". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner . Retrieved 7 February 2018. The youngster, known as Jeanette in the report, was drugged and raped by the gang from the age of 12 to 15.
  11. ↑ "West Yorkshire Police charge 25 men with child sex offences". BBC. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2018. The offences are alleged to have been committed between 2006 and 2011 and largely relate to one girl who was under 16 at the time.
  12. ↑ "Child sexual abuse ring in Halifax: 25 men charged - police reaction". Halifax Courier. 9 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2018. police say is the largest child sexual exploitation (CSE) investigation in the country - bigger than high profile cases in Rochdale and Rotherham
  13. ↑ "How officials failed Halifax schoolgirl groomed by 17 men". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  14. ↑ "Child sexual abuse ring in Halifax: 25 men charged - police reaction". Halifax Courier. 9 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2018. A year-long investigation eventually saw them arrested in May 2013 and they were all formally charged at Halifax Police Station on Wednesday.
  15. ↑ Neil Atkinson (16 June 2016). "Grooming gang sentenced to more than 150 years in jail 'systematic sex abuse' in Halifax and Bradford". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner . Retrieved 7 February 2018. Three separate trials have taken place between February and June 2016. The 13 defendants sentenced to date have amassed 156 years and six months imprisonment between them, with sentencing ranging from five to 25 years.
  16. ↑ Lizzie Dearden (12 January 2018). "Police arrest 20 men for alleged involvement in Calderdale grooming gang". The Independent . Retrieved 7 February 2018. This week's arrests were part of the same investigation, which centres on allegations made a woman who was the victim of sexual abuse as a child in the Halifax area between 2006 and 2009.
  17. 1 2 "Last two men sentenced in Calderdale's biggest child sex abuse case". The Halifax Courier. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.