Sex abuse ringleader who fathered up to 18 children wanted IVF
As grooming gang predators are jailed for a total of 102 years...
THE ringleader of an Asian paedophile gang who is said to have had up to 18 children and made several victims pregnant has requested fertility treatment to become a father again.
Arshid Hussain, 40, was yesterday jailed for 35 years for causing harm on an ‘unimaginable’ scale to girls as young as 11.
He and his accomplices were sentenced to a total of 102 years in prison in the first successful prosecution of a grooming gang in Rotherham since the scandal broke in the town in 2014.
While victims and their families hugged in the public gallery at Sheffield Crown Court, Hussain – who has shown no remorse – barely opened his eyes. One victim abused by Hussain from the age of 14 welcomed his jail sentence, saying: ‘He took my life away so now I feel like I’ve taken his.’
It was revealed in court that the grooming gang leader recently asked about how to expand his family with his 22-year-old wife Fatima. Hussain is already said to have fathered up to 18 children and impregnated seven of his teenage victims, but became a paraplegic in 2005 after being shot in the stomach. He had attempted to use the disability in a bid to escape justice.
But Judge Sarah Wright said the fact that he was well enough to apply for fertility treatment so he could have even more children meant he was fit to be tried. It is unclear whether the treatment was approved by the NHS.
Gasps came from the gallery as Hussain’s brothers were told they will spend decades in jail for grooming and raping teenages. Basharat Hussain, 39, and Bannaras Hussain, 36, were handed 25 years and 19 years respectively. Their uncle Qurban Ali, 53, was jailed for ten years.
Two white women who provided underage girls for the Hussains were also sentenced. Karen MacGregor, 58, was given 13 years in jail while Shelley Davis, 40, received an 18-month suspended sentence.
Five members of the gang sat in the dock for the hearing, but Hussain appeared via video-link from his cell at Doncaster Prison.
Sentencing, Judge Sarah Wright said they had caused harm of ‘unimaginable proportions’. She told them: ‘Each in your own way perpetrated or facilitated the sexual abuse of these young girls.
‘Many were subjected to repeated abuse. They were made to feel that they could not report it. Even if they did, no action was taken and you were free to continue.’
She added: ‘There was a perception by some victims that you appeared, in their words, to “rule Rotherham”. You exploited that.’
The ten-week trial involved 61 offences against 12 girls over 16 years to 2003. After more than four days of debate, the jury returned 45 guilty verdicts on Wednesday. The women – most now in their 30s – told a jury they were sexually, physically and emotionally abused in the South Yorkshire town when they were in their early teens.
The judge praised Hussain’s victims – many of whom were ignored by police who turned a blind eye to the abuse – for showing ‘immense courage’. She added that they had had to put up with being called liars while giving their evidence.
Yesterday, the court heard how one of the gang’s victims was beaten up by her own family after they found out she had been abused by one of the brothers.
Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said the girl was only 12 or 13 when she performed a sex act on Bannaras in a car park – but was later assaulted by her own brothers for being involved with an Asian man.
The court heard that many of the victims have also had relationship problems throughout their lives.
Speaking outside the court,
‘He took my
life away’
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Tate – the officer in charge of the investigation – described the sentences as ‘absolutely fantastic’.
The gang’s convictions mark the first successful prosecution of a grooming gang in Rotherham since the Jay Report in 2014 found at least 1,400 girls had been sexually exploited in the town.
It said the majority of perpetrators were men of Pakistani heritage and accused South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council of suppressing documents about the crimes.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating more than 194 allegations in 55 cases over how police dealt with child sex exploitation in the town.