Sex gang guilty of 100 offences

18-strong grooming ring preyed on a host of vulnerable girls ... some as young as 13

A GANG that exploited vulnerable girls for sex was convicted of nearly 100 crimes yesterday.

In another appalling grooming scandal, 17 men and one woman were found guilty of rape, sexual assault, human trafficking and inciting prostitution. Police have identified up to a potential 108 victims, some lured off the streets aged as young as 13.

At depraved ‘sessions’ in properties around Newcastle they were expected to offer sex in return for alcohol and drugs. They would be passed around the close-knit group of men. One gang member was heard to say: ‘White women are only good for men like me to f*** and use as trash’.

Mainly British-born, the abusers were from the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish communities.

Their convictions in four trials spark concern that the authorities have failed to the address the issues behind a series of grooming scandals, including notorious cases in Rochdale and Rotherham. At least six sex rings have been exposed, with police and social services often found at fault for missing chances to intervene. In other developments:

A chief constable warned some communities were not doing enough to tackle grooming gangs;

Steve Ashman said until such behaviour was considered socially unacceptable the problem would not be eradicated;

One of the victims in the latest case was in council care when she was abused;

Police missed chances to stop the gang in their tracks;

A row broke out over the decision of police to pay a child sex offender almost £10,000 to act as an informant;

It emerged that 95 people across several north-east gangs have been convicted of sexual exploitation.

Next month, 14 members of the latest gang will be sentenced, joining the four who have already been sent to jail for 20 years.

Over two years, victim after victim gave evidence about the appalling abuse they suffered. One girl was raped by two different men, and sexually assaulted by a third.

Another, a vulnerable 13-year-old in council care, claimed she was passed around by men for sex who acted as if they were in a ‘relay race’ when she was high on drugs. She had been picked up from her children’s home in a Mercedes before being driven to the drug den where a Kurdish flag hung.

A third, aged 18 at the time, was raped three different times by the same man, Eisa Mousavi, 41. The brutal attacks would often happen after the girls passed out from taking mephedrone or cannabis.

Some would wake up to find their attacker standing over them triumphant. Others found wardrobes pulled in front of the bedroom door to prevent their escape.

The gang’s abuse, which took place between 2011 and 2014, followed an insidious pattern of grooming, addiction and eventually sexual exploitation, similar to the tactics used by gangs in Rotherham.

Girls were picked up on the street, and invited to the ‘sessions’. The men would arrange to pick them up in a Mercedes or a Mitsubishi 4x4, using what police called the ‘boyfriend model’ to reel them in.

Once there they would find alcohol, cigarettes and drugs such as mephedrone (M-Kat) and cannabis freely available.

One vulnerable woman, who was raped by Abdul Minoyee, 34, said: ‘They think that, with them having a load of money, and they’re married and they’ve got kids and all of that, that they can go for younger, like our age, and have sex with them for like £40, or a tenner or something like that.

‘And people were going “Have you ever been raped?” Well I bloody well have. Now I’m telling you it’s proper horrible. I need somewhere to go to be safe.’

The girls’ addiction to drugs such as mephedrone meant they could not break free of the gang and sexual assault. They were expected to ‘just do it’ because they ‘knew the deal’, Mousavi told his 18-year-old victim. He raped her three times.

When she told him he could not keep treating her like this the monster ‘just smiled’, the court heard. One woman, aged 17 at the time, returned again and again to the ‘doss house’ despite being raped, attending 60 ‘sessions’ in just three months.

One 15-year-old was led to believe she was the ‘girlfriend’ of Mohammed Hassan Ali, 34. Ali met her at a party and started a relationship, continuing to have sex with her after finding out her real age.

Judge Moreland, sentencing him to seven years in prison in December 2015, told him: ‘She feels you took advantage of her and used her because of her youth and your age. You have damaged her ability to trust and to form relationships.’

The gang members repeatedly showed their disdain for their victims. In one outburst Badrul Hussain, who was found guilty of providing one of the main party flats, said: ‘All white women are only

‘Passed around by men for sex’

good for one thing, for men like me to f*** and use as trash, that’s all you women are worth.’

On another occasion the men were seen treating one of the girls ‘like a slave’. They were ‘dropping things on purpose and making her pick them up,’ her friend said.

Prosecutor John Elvidge, QC, said they ‘regarded these girls as commodities to be used just like drugs’. Their vulnerability made it easier for them to be exploited and abused, he said, adding: ‘They were females who were relatively naive and vulnerable.

‘They were the victims of organised, well-practised cynical exploitation and were passed between abusers.’

In court it emerged that gang members could have been stopped by police on two occasions. An offduty probation officer told how she spotted Abdul Sabe, 40, and Habibur Rahim, 34, herding three drunk teenagers into the back of a black 4x4.

Elaine Capper called the police because she knew Sabe was a convicted sex offender. But when officers caught up with them, Sabe and co-defendant Habibur Rahim were

only given warnings for cannabis possession. The girls were driven home to their parents and an entry was put on the police log to say ‘nothing untoward’ had happened.

The incident, in April 2011, came three years before the gang was eventually broken up and arrested. Half the gang, who mostly operated in the west end of Newcastle, have already been handed 20 years in prison.

The remaining 14, including two rapists, will be sentenced next month.

Newspapers are able to report the crimes after restrictions put in place by the judge were lifted on receipt of the final verdict. In the final court case, which concluded yesterday, Sabe was found guilty of conspiring in sexual assault, conspiring to traffic for sexual exploitation, administering a substance, or drugging, conspiracy to incite prostitution for gain, and supplying and possessing drugs. Hussain, 37, was found guilty of supplying drugs and allowing his premises to be used for drug supply.

Rahim, 34, was found guilty of trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of drug supply and two counts of conspiracy to incite prostitution for gain. Abdul Khayum, 25, was acquitted of rape and Abdul Kawsar, 36, was found not guilty of sexual assault. Guilty: Carolann Gallon was in the gang