Eight men guilty of historic sexual abuse offences in Rotherham

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Eight men have been convicted of sexually exploiting three teenage girls in Rotherham.

A five-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court heard how the men “sexualised” their victims and, in some instances, subjected them to acts of a “degrading and violent nature” between 1999 and 2003.

The jury, after more than 17 hours of deliberation, found them guilty on Monday of all 19 charges including rape and false imprisonment.

One girl and her family told police, their MP and the home secretary at the time, David Blunkett, about the abuse and eventually moved to Spain to get away from the men.

Supposed ringleader Sageer Hussain, 30, was convicted of four rapes and one indecent assault.

The other seven defendents, other than Basharat Hussain, 40, from Goole, who was convicted of one indecent assault, are all from Rotherham.

Mohammed Whied, 32, was found guilty of one count of aiding and abetting rape; Ishtiaq Khaliq, 33, was found guilty of one rape and three indecent assaults; Waleed Ali, 34, was found guilty of one rape and one indecent assault; Asif Ali, 30, was convicted of one rape; Masoued Malik, 32, was found guilty of one rape, one count of conspiracy to commit indecent assault and one of false imprisonment; and Naeem Rafiq, 33, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit indecent assault and one of false imprisonment.

Professor Alexis Jay's 2014 inquiry, commissioned by Rotherham Borough Council, found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

A gang of six were jailed for a combined 103 years in February for their parts in the rape and sexual exploitation of girls in Rotherham.

The eight will be sentenced on 4 November.