October 2014

Paedophile gang jailed for total of 28 years for trafficking girl, 13, for sex

FIVE men, including four from Bradford, have been jailed for a total of more than 28 years for trafficking a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Shakeal Rehman, 26, of Haworth Road, Bradford, was found guilty of rape and trafficking the girl, who was taken to Bradford after running away from her home in Sheffield

He was jailed for 12 years today by Judge Jonathan Durham-Hall at the end of a four-week long trial.

Yaseen Amini, 37, of Broadway, Bradford, and Mohammed Shapal, 22, also of Haworth Road, Bradford, were both found guilty of sexual activity with a child and trafficking.

Amini was sentenced to five-and-a-half years and Shapal to four years.

Usman Ali, 21, of St Mary’s Road, Manningham, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child and the judge sentenced him to three years in prison.

The fifth man Bekir Rasheed, 36, of Ulverston Road, Woodseats, Sheffield, was found guilty of trafficking and jailed for four years.

During the trial at Sheffield Crown Court, the jury heard the offences took place in Bradford over a period of eight days in August 2013.

The girl, who had just turned 13, was moved to several different addresses by the group, including a city centre hotel where she was raped by Rehman before she was abandoned and found by police in the centre of Bradford.

After the case, Detective Inspector Helen Tate, who led the investigation, described the offences as vile and criticised the men for putting the girl through the ordeal of a trial by deny the charges against them.

“What happened to the victim has had a huge and profound impact on her life and the lives of her family,” said Det Insp Tate.

“I cannot put into words what this child experienced at the hands of these men.

“To be the victim of any sexual offence is horrendous but to then have to engage in a process where you have to relive that ordeal and disclose in detail the intricacies of the painful event is hard to comprehend.

“It’s bad enough for an adult, but we are talking about a 13-year-old child who has had to engage with people in authority and retell her story as part of the judicial process.

“I can only hope the verdicts reached today will give the victim and her family some small degree of comfort in knowing those responsible are behind bars.

“This is just the start of a long process for the family to try to put this horrendous ordeal behind them.

“This kind of criminality can only be addressed by partnership working and with the help of communities as a whole to stand up and not accept this abuse.”