200 years jail for Asian rape gang who preyed on girls as young as 11
A GANG of depraved British Asians who raped and abused vulnerable girls as young as 11 in Huddersfield have been jailed for more than 200 years.
Ringleader Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life earlier this year and told he must serve a minimum of 18 years.
A judge told him: “Your treatment of these girls was inhuman.”
Dhaliwal is one of 20 Britons of Pakistani heritage from the town who have been found guilty of scores of sickening offences in a series of trials at Leeds Crown Court.
The three trials have been subject to a blanket reporting ban which was partially lifted yesterday. Those sentenced have already received prison terms totalling 221 years.
Dhaliwal was jailed in June along with seven other men, who received jail sentences of between eight and 18 years. Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said at the end of that trial: “This abuse was vile and wicked.” After the second trial, also ending in June, eight more men were given jail sentences of between five and 18 years.
Four more men were found guilty of a range of offences earlier this month following the third trial and will be sentenced on November 1.
One child rapist is on the run.
It was towards the end of the second trial, in May, that English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson was arrested as he put the whole prosecution in jeopardy by reporting about the case live on Facebook from outside the court.
Robinson was jailed for contempt but his conviction was later quashed. His case is due to be heard again at the Old Bailey next week.
Fifteen women told juries of the horrific ordeals they endured between 2004 and 2011 when they were aged as young as 11 and 12. The oldest victim was only 17.
Dhaliwal, who has children of his own, was convicted of 54 separate counts, including 22 rapes, involving 11 girls. Shocked jurors heard how the girls – some of whom were in care or had mild learning disabilities – were passed to other men, sometimes to drug dealers, in exchange for the drugs Dhaliwal was using to spike their drinks. The girls, now all adults, told how they believed they were being shown genuine
affection as they were groomed. But they were sexually abused in isolated areas such as parks, cars, car parks and houses.
One girl attempted suicide and another was plied with drink and drugs before being thrown from a moving car outside her home.
Judge Marson QC told Dhaliwal: “You treated them as commodities to be passed around for your own sexual gratification and the gratification of others.
“The extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything I have previously encountered.
“Children’s lives have been ruined and families profoundly affected by seeing their children, over months and years, out of control, having been groomed.”
The pattern of large-scale exploitation of mainly white girls by groups of men of Pakistani heritage mirrors what has happened in a number of other towns, including Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford.