Four men found guilty of sexually assaulting girl, 12, in Telford

Four men have been found guilty of sexually assaulting a young girl in Telford after shocking details emerged of her abuse.

The victim told a jury she was forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, was raped above a shop on a filthy mattress, and was violently abused when she tried to refuse their advances.

Opening the case at the start of the trial, Michelle Heeley QC said the victim had been "passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several young men, some of whom are in the dock”.

A total of five men have been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

The offences are all alleged to have taken place in the Telford area of the West Midlands, in Shropshire, sometime between 2000 and 2003, and started when the girl, now an adult, was just 12.

Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

The victim’s mother told the court how the abuse began when her husband died.

She said her daughter had confided in her that she had been raped – but later withdrew her complaint and said she had made it all up.

However, she contacted police years later after seeing two of the accused in media reports about a Telford sex ring.

Jurors heard at trial how Sultan already had previous convictions in both 2012 and 2015 for "similar offences against young girls”.

Co-accused Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault.

Rizwan alleged there had been a consensual sexual relationship with the victim when she was 17.

Amjad Hussain, 38, of Acacia Drive, Leegomery, Telford, was convicted of a single count of indecent assault on Tuesday, then cleared on Wednesday of a similar, separate offence.

Also on Wednesday, jurors found Shafiq Younas, 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, guilty of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard.

The jury cleared a fifth man, Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, of raping the girl in the back of a car.