January 2014

Takeaway staff jailed after young girls were groomed

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A girl of 12 was raped after she and her friends were sexually exploited by three men, a court heard.

Takeaway restaurant workers Mohammed Hussain, (pictured above) Shah Miah and Harris Uddin were jailed after a court heard how they groomed the vulnerable youngsters for their own sexual gratification.

The men were driving home from work in the early hours of the morning when they spotted the girls – two aged 12, one aged 13 and one aged 11 – in Cross Flatts park, Beeston, Leeds.

Leeds Crown Court heard the girls were frightened of going home because they had stayed out long past their parental curfew. Miah, 28, struck up a conversation with the girls before persuading them to go back to his home nearby in Woodview Street. The men offered the girls cannabis and played pornographic films before two of the girls were taken upstairs.

Hussain had sex with one of the 12-year-old girls as the victim asked him to stop during the attack. Uddin tried to remove the trousers of one of the girls but stopped when she asked him not to. All three men were arrested later the same day, in March last year, after police were informed.

Hussain pleaded guilty to rape and was jailed for six years and eight months. Uddin pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was jailed for 12 months.

The court heard Hussain, 28, and Uddin, 30, were in the country illegally as overstayers. They face deportation to the India after completing their sentences

Miah pleaded guilty to facilitating the commission of a sexual offence against a child. He was jailed for 18 months.

The court heard Miah is also serving a four and a half year sentence for sex offences against three other children.

Det Supt Pat Twiggs, Head of Crime for Leeds District, said: “These men preyed on these vulnerable young girls in a premeditated way to sexually exploit them. The circumstances of the offences included grooming behaviour leading to the appalling sexual abuse of victims that were clearly underage.

* Rape Crisis freephone helpline: 0808 802 9999