JAILED FOR 35 YEARS, THE MONSTER WHO ROBBED SAMMY OF HER CHILDHOOD
SAMMY Woodhouse’s abuser Arshid Hussain was part of a notorious criminal family in Rotherham.
Once under the control of the gang, who believed they ‘ruled the town’, youngsters were raped, beaten and forced into prostitution.
Yet little was done to protect girls from the three brothers, and the abusers believed they were above the law.
The Hussains’ victims were some of the more than 1,000 who were betrayed by the authorities in Rotherham, who ignored their plight for years.
This appalling failure by agencies was exposed in a damning report published by Professor Alexis Jay in August 2014.
She estimated a staggering 1,400 girls were abused in Rotherham by men of predominantly Pakistani heritage during a 16year period to 2013.
Council officials, who feared being charged with racism, were accused of suppressing evidence to avoid causing damage to ‘community cohesion’.
Police treated victims with contempt, turned a blind eye to their plight, and often held them responsible rather than the older male rapists.
Social workers also failed hopelessly to protect victims, and in Sammy Woodhouse’s case they believed little could be done.
Even when she twice became pregnant by Arshid, the authorities failed to act because she consented and refused to lodge a complaint.
Her case typified the failure of agencies. Rotherham council was declared ‘not fit for purpose’ in 2015 over its handling of child sexual exploitation. It wasn’t until last year that Arshid was punished for his crimes, as he was sentenced to 35 years for 23 offences including indecent assault and rape involving nine victims, some as young as 11.
His two brothers, Basharat and Bannaras, were jailed for 25 and 19 years respectively for horrific child sex crimes.
The brothers’ uncle, Qurban Ali, was found guilty of conspiracy to rape.
Shameless Arshid, who is now severely disabled after he was shot in the stomach in 2005, had even asked about how to expand his family using IVF fertility treatment with his wife Fatima.