Gang groomed girl, 13, then raped her in playground and her own bedroom

Three men who targeted a young girl on her paper rounds before raping her in a playground and her own bedroom have been jailed for a total of 41 years.

Banaras Hussain, 44, Talish Ahmed, 41, and Mohammed Akram, 44, subjected the child to a campaign of abuse between 1995 and 1998.

Leeds Crown Court heard the girl, who can't be named for legal reasons, was just 12 years old and wearing school uniform when the predators first identified her as a target.

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The court heard she was raped in a primary school playground and one of the men once climbed up a drainpipe and into her bedroom at her father's house and raped her.

The vulnerable teen suffered the abuse between the ages of 13 and 15 before finally managing to break away from her tormentors, who are all from Huddersfield.

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The three men were found guilty 25 years later as part of West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea enquiry, which investigates the historical abuse of young girls in the region.

A jury heard the victim was groomed for sexual purposes and bribed with cigarettes, vodka, special brew lager and drugs.

Opening the trial on Monday, prosecutor Kate Batty told the jury that from the age of 13 the girl was deliberately targeted by older men who wanted to use her for their own sexual purposes.

Batty described the girl, who was the daughter of an abusive single mother and was bullied in school, as vulnerable with low-self esteem.

She said older men struck up conversations with her in the street and she was groomed by being made to feel special, including by being given cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.

Batty said: "By the time she was 13 years old, she was drinking every day and was intoxicated most of the time."

Appearing in the dock on Thursday, Hussain, who was 19 and married when he groomed the girl, was sentenced to 18 years for two offences of rape against a female aged under 16.

Ahmed was handed 10 years for the rape of a female aged under 16.

Akram, also 19 and in a relationship at the time, was handed a 13 years sentence for two offences of rape and one offence of indecent assault.

Speaking after the hearing, DCI Ian Thornes said: “These strong sentences reflect the gravity of these men’s crimes against a young, innocent girl who they abused in the most appalling fashion.

“I hope these convictions again demonstrate to victims that we will do all we possibly can to help you seek justice no matter when the crimes were committed.

"We do put victim’s needs at the heart of every investigation and thoroughly investigate all reports made to us.”

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