Rotherham gang which groomed, raped and abused teenage girls has today been jailed for a total of 102 years

The Rotherham gang which groomed, raped and abused teenage girls has today been jailed for a total of 102 years.

Brothers Arshid, 40, Bannaras, 36, and Basharat, 39,  were also sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court today after a series of women - most now in their 30s - told a jury how they were sexually, physically and emotionally abused in the South Yorkshire town when they were in their early teens.

The Hussains were found guilty of a range of offences earlier this week along with their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, and two women - Karen MacGregor, 59, and Shelley Davis, 40.

The group targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one aged only 11, and forced them to perform horrific sex acts over a sixteen year period. 

Judge Sarah Wright told the gang: 'The harm you have caused is of unimaginable proportions.' Arshid and Basharat Hussain were found guilty of dozens of attacks between them. Arshid, the ringleader, has been jailed for 35 years, while Basharat was given 25 years. 

Bannaras Hussain admitted ten charges - including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm - at the beginning of the trial. He was given a 19-year sentence.

ROTHERHAM SEX GANG SENTENCES

Arshid Hussain - 35 years

Basharat Hussain - 25 years

Bannaras Hussain - 19 years

Karen MacGregor - 13 years 

Qurban Ali - 10 years

Shelley Davis - 18 months (suspended) 

The brothers' uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, appeared alongside them in court. He too was found guilty of conspiracy to rape and has been jailed for 10 years. 

MacGregor and Davis were found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment.

MacGregor was jailed for 13 years, while Davis was handed an 18-month suspended sentence.

Shocking details emerged of an incident where police appeared to turn a blind eye to Bannaras Hussain receiving oral sex from a girl who was only around 12 or 13 at the time.

Bannaras abused the victim in a car park next to Rotherham Police Station. The prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said: '(The girl) performed oral sex on Bannaras Hussain.

'When, shortly afterwards, a police car pulled up alongside them and asked what was going on, Bannaras Hussain shouted "she's just sucking my c***, mate".

'The police car drove off. He was indifferent to whether she consented or not.'The girl was beaten up by her own family when they found out she had been abused by the Rotherham grooming gang since she was 12. 

The prosecutor added: 'When her brothers found out, they were furious with her and would physically assault her because she was involved sexually with an Asian man.' 

As Judge Wright passed sentence on Arshid, there was a shout of 'Yes' and gasps from the packed public gallery.

Some of the victims and their relatives who held hands on the balcony of the court hugged each other.

Arshid was clearly visible on a big screen in court - appearing by video-link from Doncaster Prison. He showed no reaction at the sentence, barely opening his eyes for most of the hearing.The judge said: 'Each in your own way perpetrated or facilitated the sexual abuse of these young girls.

'Your victims were targeted, sexualised and in some cases subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature.

'Many of the victims were subjected to repeated abuse. There was a pattern of abuse which was repeated over and over again. Some victims were groomed, some coerced and intimidated.

'They were made to feel that they could not report what was happening to them.

'Even if they did, no action was taken and you were free to continue your exploitation of them.'

Addressing Arshid, she said: 'You and your brothers, Bannaras Hussain and Basharat Hussain, were well-known in the area - you drove distinctive cars and had a reputation for violence.

'There was a perception by some of your victims that you appeared, in their words, to "rule Rotherham". You exploited that to the full.' 

Two other men, Majid Bostan, 37 and Sajid Bostan, 38, also brothers, were cleared of all charges. 

JUDGE THANKS VICTIMS FOR 'IMMEASURABLE COURAGE' TO SPEAK OUT

A judge has thanked the victims of the Hussain brothers for their 'immeasurable courage' and made a point of praising the woman whose story led to the prosecution.

Judge Sarah Wright told Sheffield Crown Court that while some of the women were accused in court of making up stories for money or of being fantasists, their real motive was 'to bring the issue of child sexual exploitation into the public domain'.

Judge Wright told the defendants: 'Before I deal with the role that each of you played in this appalling catalogue of offending, I wish to pay tribute to the victims in this case.

'They came forward to give their accounts to the police despite, in some cases, having tried to speak up previously when nothing was done.

'For many years they have not been heard. They have had no voice.'

She said: 'They showed immeasurable courage in giving evidence and, in effect, having to re-live their abuse in this court.

'It was a recurrent theme when they were accused in cross-examination on behalf of a defendant of inventing stories for financial gain or being accused of being fantasists that it became apparent that their real motive for coming forward was their desire to bring the issue of child sexual exploitation into the public domain and a wish to prevent it happening to other children in the future.

'They hope that by them speaking out it will not just act as a deterrent to others behaving in this way towards young people but also ensure that the appropriate authorities will not fail to take action in the future in the face of evidence of such crimes.

'Their bravery in speaking up, knowing they would be repeatedly accused of lying in this court, was considerable and cannot be under-estimated.'

The judge went through the stories of each of the 15 victims in turn.

When she got to the account of one woman, who was systematically abused by Arshid Hussain as a teenager, she said: 'Despite the substantial hurdles she has encountered, your victim has shown considerable courage, tenacity and a steely determination in bringing these horrific crimes to the attention of the public.'

This woman first told her story to reporter Andrew Norfolk, from the Times, starting a process which led to a huge investigation, the Jay Report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and this week's convictions.

The judge told Arshid: 'Her victim impact statement highlights how she was just a child when you abused her.

'This was not a relationship, as has been suggested by the defence. She was a child and you were an adult.

'She lost her education, her friends and her family as result of your actions. She too has self-harmed and suffered from eating disorders. She vividly describes her life as being shattered into a million pieces and she feels she is just held together by sticky tape.'

Judge Wright described the actions of the gang as 'this appalling catalogue of offending'.

She went through each of the victim's stories one-by-one.

Concluding one account, she said: 'The effect of the abuse of her has been devastating.

'Her childhood memories are of pain and abuse. She is unable to trust anyone.

'She has suffered from eating disorders and anxiety throughout her life. You took her childhood from her.'

In relation to another victim, the judge said: 'She describes you, Basharat Hussain, as stealing the person she was and alienating her from her family.

'She describes contemplating taking her own life when she became pregnant and indeed on occasions since.

'She feels worthless and ashamed as a result of your treatment of her. She feels guilt. She should not have to feel like that. You are responsible, not her.'Ms Colborne handed in a pile of victim personal statements, highlighting a comment from one girl who said the Hussain brothers acted 'as a pack of animals' when she was urinated on.

The prosecutor said: 'They describe from their teenage years a life in the main of feeling dirty, ashamed and guilty. 

'Between them, a plethora of emotional conditions - eating disorders, self-harm, agoraphobia, self-loathing and terminations for many of them from the age of 14 - events they have never been able to put behind them.'

The jury heard how the Hussain brothers, known as, Mad Ash, Bash and Bono, 'ruled Rotherham' with their drugs and guns operation and abused girls with impunity. 

Ms Colborne said many of the victims have had relationship problems throughout their lives and have found themselves subjected to domestic violence.In a trial that lasted two months, Sheffield Crown Court heard how teenage girls in the town were repeatedly raped and beaten by men who passed them around and forced some to work as prostitutes.

A jury of six women and six men deliberated on a total of 51 counts, involving 12 alleged victims, in a trial that lasted two months. 

On Wednesday, victims of the gang welcomed the convictions after so many years in which they were disbelieved and ignored by the authorities.Some of the 12 women who told their stories to the jury over the last two months sat in the public gallery holding hands as Arshid and Basharat were found guilty of offences including rapes and many indecent assaults which, if they happened now, would be classified as rape.

The brothers were given access to their victims by local women MacGregor and Davies. 

MacGregor, described in court as a 'mother figure', took in girls - all of whom were white - from children's homes, purporting to give them a safe haven and support.

But she allowed them to be abused and kept captive, telling them they needed to 'earn their keep' by having sex with a succession of visiting men.

She even set up a support group - Kin Kids - for family members looking after children whose parents could no longer cope - recruiting the support of her local Labour MP who took her to Westminster to discuss the issue.

Yet with the women's help, the Hussain brothers - known as Mad Ash, Bash and Bono - were able to rape multiple girls, many of whom were also indecently assaulted.

After the verdicts, the police watchdog said it was now looking into more than 194 allegations about police conduct in relation to exploitation in Rotherham and 54 officers had so far been named, 26 of whom have been notified they are being formally investigated.

ROTHERHAM CHILD SEX ABUSE GANG: FULL LIST OF THEIR CONVICTIONS

Arshid Hussain, 40, of High Street, East Cowick, Goole, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to rape, 11 indecent assaults, three rapes, one other serious sexual assault, one count of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sex with another, one count of false imprisonment, two counts of procuring a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute, one count of attempting to procure a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse, one count of abducting a 15-year-old girl, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was cleared of two rapes, two counts of aiding and abetting rape and one of aiding and abetting a serious sexual assault at the end of the trial. He was also cleared of one count of abduction on the orders of the judge.

Basharat Hussain, 39, of no fixed address, was convicted of one rape, five indecent assaults, one count of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with another, false imprisonment, three counts of indecency with a child, one count of procuring a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute, two assaults occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of making threats to kill.

Qurban Ali, 53, of Clough Road, Rotherham, was convicted of conspiracy to rape. He was cleared of one count each of indecent assault, rape and procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with another.

Karen MacGregor, 58, of Barnsley Road, Wath-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire, and Rotherham, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to procure a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute, false imprisonment and two counts of conspiracy to rape.

Shelley Davies, 40, of Wainwright Road, Kimberworth Park, Rotherham, was convicted of conspiracy to procure a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute and false imprisonment. During the course of the trial she was cleared of a charge of conspiracy to rape.

Majid Bostan, 37, of Ledsham Road, Broom, Rotherham, was cleared of one indecent assault.

Sajid Bostan, 38, of Broom Avenue, Broom, Rotherham, was cleared of three rapes, two counts of aiding and abetting rape, one indecent assault and one other serious sexual assault.

Before the trial Bannaras Hussain, 36, of Goole, admitted 10 charges - two rapes, six indecent assaults, an assault occasioning actual bodily harm and procuring a woman to be a prostitute. He denied a further count of rape which will lie on file.

The convictions involved a total of 15 victims. Twelve of these were involved in the trial and three were only victims of Bannaras Hussain, who pleaded guilty. 

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said British Pakistanis needed to acknowledge the problem of grooming gangs operating in their communities.

He said: 'Until British Pakistanis accept that this is a problem for our community we will not be able to eradicate this evil. Burying our head in the sand as the usual response is not good enough.'

One victim of the Rotherham gang, referred to as 'Jessica', said: 'It has been 16 years we have waited for this.

'It has not sunk in yet. This can give me some closure, for me my life starts now.'

The jury heard how MacGregor lured vulnerable girls to stay at her 'Hansel and Gretel' house in Rotherham, promising them refuge but pimping them out to a succession of men for sex to 'earn their keep'.Arshid followed the court case from his bed at home via video link. The jury heard how he claims to be a paraplegic following a shooting in 2005.

During the verdicts he could be seen on screens in court apparently asleep. But Judge Sarah Wright said he was taken to hospital with police officers after his wife called an ambulance.

Prosecutors said they believed this was a deliberate attempt to frustrate the judicial process.

The convictions of the Hussain brothers and their associates is the first successful prosecution of a grooming gang in Rotherham since the child sexual exploitation scandal engulfed the town 18 months ago.

Rotherham became a byword for the exploitation of teenage girls and the failure of police and social workers to stop it happening with the publication of the Jay Report in August 2014.

Professor Alexis Jay said she had found 'utterly appalling' examples of 'children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally-violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone'. 

Her report shocked the nation partly due to the scale of exploitation it described, finding that at least 1,400 children had been raped, trafficked and groomed in the town over a 16-year period.

But its impact was so far reaching because it also laid bare the extend to which police and council officials failed to act on what they knew, and explicitly questioned whether this neglect was related to the perpetrators largely being adult men of a Pakistani heritage 

Although the Jay Report resulted in the Rotherham exploitation becoming a national scandal, it was the previous major prosecution of a grooming gang in the town that kick-started this process.

POLICE CHIEF PRAISES VICTIMS 

Authorities clamoured outside Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday to praise victims for their 'incredible bravery' in giving evidence. 

Temporary detective chief inspector Martin Tait, from South Yorkshire Police, called the verdicts a 'crucial milestone for those victims and survivors who endured years of violence and horrific sexual abuse at the hands of these vile individuals'.

He said: 'They have shown incredible bravery reliving vicious traumatic events for the courts.

'For their courage and support of this investigation I am eternally thankful, and can't really express how pleased I am for them.

In 2010, five men - Umar Razaq, Razwan Razaq, Zafran Ramzan, Adil Hussain, Mohsin Khan - were found guilty of a string of sex offences against girls aged between 12 and 16.

This case provoked some media attention but did not gain nationwide coverage. 

But it was followed by a growing number of prosecutions of a similar nature around the UK, including in Derby, Oxford and Rochdale. 

Times reporter Andrew Norfolk exposed a pattern of mainly white teenage girls being groomed by gangs of adult men of a Pakistani heritage.

When Mr Norfolk began to disclose in detail the stories of girls who had been exploited in Rotherham, it started a chain of events that led to Rotherham Council asking Professor Jay to look into what was happening.

Waves of criticism followed, aimed mainly at Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police.

Resignations included the leader and chief executive of the council as well as its director of children's services.

The most high-profile casualty was South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Shaun Wright, who was the councillor in charge of Rotherham's children's services between 2005 and 2010.

A further review of Rotherham Council by the Government's Troubled Families chief, Louise Casey, heaped more criticism on an authority she labelled as 'not fit for purpose' and 'in denial'.

That led to the then communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles handing over its powers to a panel of appointed commissioners.

South Yorkshire Police says it now has a team of more than 60 officers working on child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Its joint operation with the council and Crown Prosecution Service - Operation Clover - has resulted in the current prosecution and others currently moving through the criminal justice system.

The National Crime Agency has also been brought in to investigate historical crimes and last year announced it was looking at 300 potential suspects.

The police and the NCA have said that successful prosecutions are the key to building trust with the survivors of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

But, also last year, David Greenwood, a lawyer who represents 65 women who were subjected to sexual abuse by gangs of men in Rotherham between 1996 and 2012, said he was aware of fewer than 100 victims who had come forward.

Lesley McLean, Manager for the independent charity Victim Support in Rotherham, paid tribute to the woman who relived their horrific experiences in the dock.

She said: 'The women who made the brave decision to speak out and seek justice have shown tremendous courage and we hope the sentences passed today will go some way to helping them recover from the horrendous crimes they have suffered.

'As a charity which has supported many of these victims through our Vulnerable Victims Programme, and thousands of victims of sexual assault every year, we know that this appalling crime can leave a trail of destruction on victims’ lives. 

'It is critical that victims know where to turn for help and that they will be believed and given the support they need.'