143 years for child rape gang but leader escapes justice with f light to Bangladesh
A JUDGE condemned 12 Asian men who raped and sexually abused the same young teenage girl as ‘contemptuous and arrogant’ as he jailed them for a total of 143 years yesterday.
The paedophiles subjected the schoolgirl, who was 13 when she was first attacked, to a year of hell with repeated brutal rapes and beatings.
Her bravery in giving evidence helped bring the gang to justice but ringleader Arif Chowdhury fled abroad while on bail and has escaped capture.
The drug dealer, 20, was just 15 when he raped her behind a church as he laughed at her.
He then terrorised the vulnerable teenager and orchestrated most of the other sex attacks by Asian men he knew.
The shameless and ‘insolent’ gang joked in the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery before being given sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 20 years.
Judge Roger Thomas, QC, told them: ‘The attitudes the majority of you have so clearly demonstrated to these proceedings has been contemptuous, disrespectful and arrogant on a scale I have hardly seen before in many years of practice in criminal law.’
The attackers – all from Keighley,
‘Terrible and
heartless’
West Yorkshire – took ‘terrible and heartless sexual advantage’ of the girl, he said.
Most of the jobless paedophiles led a ‘feckless and unattractive’ life, smoking drugs and hanging around in an underground car park, added the judge.
Bradford Crown Court heard the girl came from an unhappy home and had been rejected by her mother, a heavy drinker.
When Chowdhury offered the vulnerable teenager up as a sex object, the men lined up and raped her time and time again.
Judge Thomas said: ‘ She clearly demanded pity and understanding but their view of her was heartless and demeaning.
‘ They showed her no shred of decency or humanity when, as a vulnerable child, she so needed care and understanding.’
During the trial, the jury heard how Chowdhury regularly beat the girl. Some of the sex assaults took place on an old sofa in a disused underground car park. On another occasion, five men raped her in succession in a back lane.
Even if Chowdhury was not present, the threat of what he might do was enough to ensure the terrified girl did not flee.
Throughout her ordeal, she was known to the police and social services. One social worker even took her to have a contraceptive coil fitted at the age of just 14.
Eventually in May 2012, she was put in care. Now aged 18, she told in a statement how she still suffered from the physical and mental effects of her ordeal.
‘Trust issues affect every aspect of my life,’ she said. ‘I have struggled to remain in control of my emotions and life in general.’
After the case, Kris Hopkins, Tory MP for Keighley, said: ‘The sick model of groups of Asian men grooming young white girls to be sexually abused remains a blight at the heart of many communities. Sadly Keighley is at the top of the list.’
Local councillor Zafar Ali told Mail-Online that grooming was ‘not Islamic’. But he added: ‘It takes two to tango, there are bad apples, but it doesn’t mean everyone is bad. There is some feeling that the victim had a part to play.’
Chowdhury escaped justice in 2013 and is believed to be in Bangladesh, effectively beyond the reach of the UK authorities.
The rapists are: Yasser Kabir, 25, jailed for 20 years (sentence also for raping two other girls aged five to nine when a teenager); Khalid Mahmood, 34, jailed for 17 years: Sufyan Ziarab, 23, jailed for 15 years; Bilal Ziarab, 21, for 12 years; Nazir Khan, 24, Saqib Younis, 29, and Faisal Khan, 27, all for 13 years; Tauqueer Hussain, 23, for 18 years (sentence also for raping a second underage girl in 2009).
Zain Ali, 20, was given eight years in a young offenders’ institution for rape; Hussain Sardar, 19, was given six years and Israr Ali, 19, three-and-a-half years.
Mohammed Akram got five years for sexual activity with a child.