Dealer sold drugs to at-risk victims of grooming gang
HE ALSO LET HIS PREMISES BE USED FOR SUPPLY
A DRUG dealer who supplied MCAT to vulnerable victims of a Newcastle grooming gang has been jailed for 12 years.
Nadeem Aslam’s home in the West End was a focal point where some of those convicted as part of Operation Shelter would gather to take drink and drugs with teenage girls.
Aslam was cleared of any sexual wrongdoing but found guilty of a series of drugs offences, including supplying to victims of the sexual exploitation gang and allowing his premises to be used for the peddling of MCAT.
While on bail he was also found to be taking part in a separate conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.
Earlier this year, Aslam wrote to the Chronicle from his prison cell protesting his innocence and complaining he had been labelled a groomer despite his involvement being limited to drugs.
Now the 43-year-old has become the last of those convicted as part of Operation Shelter to be locked up at Newcastle Crown Court – for supplying MCAT to two of the girls, permitting his premises to be used for the supply of drugs, possessing MCAT and cannabis and unrelated charges of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.
Locking him up, Judge Penny Moreland said: “You were a friend of Mohammed Azram and your address was an address to which he frequently brought (one of the girls).
“It was a place, she said, where people could sit and have drink and drugs.
“You invited your cousins and your friends to these gatherings with (the girl) and other young women. You supplied MCAT to (another girl) and to (the first girl).
“I do not take the view that in doing so, your role was a lesser role. That does not reflect your culpability in supplying drugs to girls 20 years your junior.
“It would be wrong to describe your supply as sharing between peers, because of that age difference, and the difference in maturity and responsibility.
“Your offending is aggravated, in my view, because of its context: you supplied to young women, not for money, but, the evidence suggests, to encourage them to visit and to remain in your home.”
Aslam was jailed for 18 months for the supplying MCAT offences.
Referring to the permitting his premises to be used offences, Judge Moreland said: “As I have said, yours was an address to which Azram brought (the two girls). (Two other girls) were also visitors to your address.
“You invited cousins and friends to attend, and at these gatherings which you had organised, MCAT was supplied to the people in the house by you and by others.
“The supply which you permitted was the supply by older men, including the conspirators, to vulnerable girls and young women, and I am sure you knew that the drugs were not being paid for with money.
“It was not an ordinary family home, as you asserted in evidence, but an address used primarily for drug related activity.
“Your position is aggravated because I take the view that a harmful consequence of you permitting this supply, a consequence I accept unintended by you, was to facilitate Mohammed Azram in his grooming of young women, allowing him to bring them to an address where they could drink and be given free MCAT and thus increase their dependency on him and on the drug.
“It was in your address that Azram sexually assaulted (a girl), after he had provided MCAT for her (and two other girls).”
While on bail, Aslam was arrested on March 28 2015 at Church Road, Gosforth.
He had been involved in bringing half a kilo of heroin to Newcastle from Middlesbrough and also conspired to supply cocaine.
For those offences – part of Operation Emerald, not Operation Shelter – he was jailed for nine years, to run consecutively to the three years for the other offences.
As well as the 12-year prison sentence, Aslam, of Belle Grove West, Spital Tongues, was made subject to a serious crime prevention order.
Richard Bloomfield, defending, said: “He was acquitted of all the sexual allegations against him and his is very vexed about the fact he has nonetheless been described as a groomer in the Press because it’s not, he feels, borne out by the evidence.”
As we reported in August, Aslam sent us a hand-written letter from prison, making claims about the rapist police informant known only as ‘XY’ while dismissing his own convictions, saying he had been cleared of anything he calls “wrongdoing”.
Aslam wrote: “My name is Nadeem Aslam and I am one of the defendants on Operation Shelter.
“I was cleared of any wrongdoing and I have no sexual charges yet still I have been labelled a ‘groomer.’ I want the public to know the truth.”
Aslam was one of 18 people convicted as part of Northumbria Police’s Operation Shelter.
The investigation was launched in early 2014 in response to allegations that vulnerable girls and young women in the West End were being plied with drugs and drink then exploited for sex.
The 17 men and one woman were convicted of offences including rape, trafficking for sexual exploitation and supplying drugs, after jurors heard how troubled girls were lured to parties known as ‘sessions’ and abused.
During a series of trials, it was revealed Northumbria Police paid almost £10,000 to a convicted rapist to infiltrate the sex gang.
The force said XY was instructed not to go to any of the sessions and was tasked with finding out when and where the parties were taking place so police could disrupt them.