By: LekshmiSajeev
SIX MEN from Rotherham were on Wednesday (28) found guilty of grooming and abusing vulnerable girls more than a decade ago.
Masaued Malik, 35, Aftab Hussain, 40, Abid Saddiq, 38, Sharaz Hussain, 35, and two further men aged 33 and 35 were convicted following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court that lasted eight weeks.
They will be sentenced on September 30.
The offences relate to the exploitation of seven vulnerable teenage girls between 1998 and 2002. The men were found guilty of giving the girls alcohol and drugs before raping them.
“The girls, who were all vulnerable and craving attention and love, were deliberately targeted for the sole purpose of becoming sexual objects for the men,” said the National Crime Agency (NCA), which has been investigating child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
“At the time, none of them had the maturity to understand they were being groomed and exploited, believing that sex was some kind of ‘necessary price’ for friendship.
“They were given alcohol and drugs, belittled and passed around to other men for their gratification, and were vulnerable because of their need to be loved. All seven suffer the emotional effects of the abuse to this day.
“All the men lived in Rotherham and the surrounding areas and associated with one another at the time the abuse took place. A feature of their sexual offending was they would often act as a group, happy to share girls around amongst each other.”
Aftab Hussain was found guilty of two indecent assault charges.
Saddiq was found guilty of two counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault and two counts of child abduction.
Malik was found guilty of three indecent assaults.
Sharaz Hussain was found guilty of four indecent assaults.
One of the two defendants who cannot be named was found guilty of two indecent assaults. The other found guilty of one indecent assault and two counts of child abduction.
