April 2013

Ipswich sex slave teenager case: London men jailed

Hamza Ali, Suran Uddin and Mohammed Sheikh treated the girl “like a piece of meat”

Three men from east London who abducted a 13-year-old girl from the streets of the city and forced her to become their sex slave have been jailed.

The girl, described as being from a troubled family, was driven to a house in Ipswich and sexually abused over four days, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Mohammed Sheikh, 32, Hamza Ali, 39, and Suran Uddin, 26, were convicted of sex offences and trafficking.

Uddin was jailed for 15 years, Sheikh for eight years and Ali for five years.

Judge Nicholas Coleman said the girl had been left traumatised.

‘Piece of meat’

The judge told the men: “Instead of helping this girl find refuge, you were all intent on sexually exploiting her for your own ends,” he added.

“She was taken to a town she’d never visited, a house she never been to, in the company of men she had never met.

“All three of you treated her like a piece of meat and passed her about.

“This happened over four days until she was finally rescued by police.”

Jurors heard how the men took advantage of the girl’s “youth and naivety” to persuade her to get into a van, driven by Uddin.

They took her to a house in Chevallier Street, Ipswich.

‘Engaging with strangers’

Maria Denine, mitigating for Sheikh, said the defendants had not been aware of her background or how vulnerable she was.

Mitigating for Uddin, Scott Ivill said his client was married with two children and any custodial sentence would cause his family to suffer.

Lindsay Cox, for Ali, said his client was also a married man.

He added: “This girl looked appreciably older than her age and she had a history of engaging with strangers.”

Uddin, of St Matthew’s Row, Bethnal Green; Sheikh, of Seaton Point in Hackney; and Ali, of Chilford Road, Waltham Forest were all found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in the UK.

Uddin was also convicted of two counts of rape and supplying a class B drug to the victim.

Sheikh was convicted of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and supplying a class B drug.

Ali was found guilty of a sexual assault.

All three men were placed on the sex offenders register and Sheikh and Ali could face deportation to Somalia, their home country.

A fourth defendant, Abdul Hammed, 46, of Wellington Street, Ipswich, was cleared of supplying a class B drug, two counts of rape and trafficking.

Febuary 2013

Three men abducted ‘troubled’ 13-year-old and forced her to become their sex slave after plying her with drugs

• The girl was subjected to a string of assaults over four days

• She was trafficked from London home after men ‘deliberately targeted her’

• When she got to Ipswich she was ‘treated as skivvy’ and ‘repeatedly raped’

A 13-year-old girl from a ‘troubled family’ was abducted by three men and forced into becoming their sex slave.

The girl was subjected to a string of assaults over four days after being trafficked from her home in London to Ipswich, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told Norwich Crown Court.

Suran Uddin, 28, of St Matthew’s Row, Bethnal Green, London, Mohammed Sheikh, 31, of Seaton Point in Hackney, London, and Hamza Ali, 38, of Chilford Road, Waltham Forest, London, denied various sex offences during a three week trial.

But following three days of jury deliberations, Uddin, Sheikh and Ali were today all found guilty of conspiracy to traffick in the UK and supplying a class B drug to the victim.

Uddin was also convicted of two counts of rape.

Sheikh was convicted on a charge of causing a child to engage in sexual activity but was cleared of two counts of rape.

Ali was found guilty of a sexual assault but not guilty of rape.

The men will be sentenced at a later date.

Opening the case, Miss Karmy-Jones said: ‘These men deliberately targeted her. She was an unhappy and deeply troubled child.

‘They enticed her to travel with them in order to set her up as a sex slave and to use her for their pleasure.

‘In order to do so, they plied her with drugs and alcohol and made promises that they would take care of her and give her anything she wanted.

‘Once at the property in Ipswich, she was treated as little more than skivvy and she was raped over the course of four days.’

She said that Sheikh in particular took advantage of the girl’s ‘youth and naivety’ and she became so attached to him that at first she found it difficult to accuse him of wrong doing.

However, forensic examinations proved he had sexual contact with the victim, Miss Karmy-Jones said.

She added that, shortly before her abduction, the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been removed from her mother’s care and was living with her father after concerns were raised for her welfare.

The alleged attacks took place in a house in Chevallier Street, Ipswich, which had been rented just days before the girl disappeared.