‘Vile and wicked’ sex abusers are jailed

CRIME: Five men who sexually exploited young girls in Huddersfield have been given prison sentences of up to 14 years by a judge who told them their abuse was “vile and wicked” and “defies understanding”. A total of 27 men have now been convicted following West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea.

FIVE men who sexually exploited young girls in Huddersfield have been given prison sentences of up to 14 years by a judge who told them their abuse was “vile and wicked” and “defies understanding”.

A total of 27 men have now been convicted following West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea investigation into child sexual exploitation in the town, with jail sentences totalling more than 300 years.

Yesterday Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told the five men convicted last week: “The way these girls were treated defies understanding.

“This abuse was vile and wicked. None of you has expressed any remorse for what you did.”

Jailing one 32-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, for 14 years, Judge Marson said the attack had been on a vulnerable girl.

He said: “You took the virginity of a particularly vulnerable 12-year-old and left her bleeding on the floor in the park.”

He said this defendant also subjected another teenage girl to a “campaign of rape”, abusing her on a regular basis in a Huddersfield park, using sleeping pills to subdue her.

The five men were convicted after the end of the fifth criminal trial relating to Operation Tendersea.

They were jailed for a total of 45 years, bringing the combined jail sentences after the five trials to 312 years.

Judge Marson told Leeds Crown Court that Operation Tendersea involved “a large number of men, principally Asian men”, who have been charged in relation to “the grooming and sexual abuse of a large number of children”.

The judge described how vulnerable girls were plied with drugs and alcohol and passed between men in Huddersfield.

He said the victims thought that they were being shown genuine affection but this was an illusion “deliberately created to enable predatory men to perpetrate gross sexual abuse for their own perverted gratification”.

Judge Marson described how one terrified 12-year-old was targeted by the men who used her mobile phone to locate her despite attempts by the authorities to move her.

The way these girls were treated defies understanding.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC addressing Leeds Crown Court.

He said that one night the house phone rang and a man asked for the girl and said – in a blunt manner – that he wanted to have sex with her.

“After three days the girl was moved to another foster carer in another city and again she was quickly located,” the judge said.

There were repeated calls from Asian men saying they wanted to have sex with her.

The judge said: “The girl was absolutely terrified and said that if the carer gave the Sim card to the police ‘they will find me and kill me’.”

Umar Zaman, 31, and Samuel Fikru, 32, of William Street, Huddersfield, were each jailed for eight years yesterday after they were convicted of two counts of rape.

The court heard that Zaman has absconded and is believed to be in Pakistan.

A 32-year-old man convicted of five counts of rape was jailed for 14 years.

Another 32-year-old man found guilty of a single count of rape was jailed for eight years, and a 38-year-old man found guilty of attempted rape was jailed for seven years. The two men’s names cannot be reported for legal reasons.

A sixth defendant, Banaris Hussain, 36, also of William Street, was convicted of one count of rape, and will be sentenced on Monday.