Yahoo News Two members of vile sex grooming gang who abused girls in 'butcher's flat' lose bid for early freedom
Senior judges today dismissed appeals brought by two members of a Rochdale sex grooming gang which plied vulnerable girls with vodka and drugs before abusing them.
Insar Hussain, 38, and Mohammed Ghani, 39, were jailed for 17 and 14 years respectively in October last year following a trial which saw five men convicted and sentenced. Today senior judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London dismissed their appeals against sentence. They also threw out an appeal against conviction by Hussain.
The gangs abused two girls over a number of years in the mid 2000s. One of their victims, referred to as Girl A, described being given drugs and alcohol by the men and being ‘passed on to their friends’, adding that she had to do what they said or she would be ‘beaten and raped’.
The girl told police she had met a group of young men, including Mohammed Ghani, when she was just 12 years old. She said she would meet Ghani, known as ‘Gunny’, along with his brother, Jahn Shahid Ghani and Ghani's closest friend Insar Hussain at Jahn’s flat on Whitworth Road in Rochdale.
The flat was known as the ‘Butcher’s Flat’ as it was above an old butcher’s shop. Girl A described becoming ‘accustomed’ to giving the men what they wanted sexually, that condoms were rarely used, that they would ‘bombard’ her with calls and treat her like a ‘piece of meat’.
Both girls, aged 13 and 14 at the time, had difficult childhoods, with one girl reported missing to the police on 83 occasions over a three year period, prosecutor Charlotte Rimmer told the trial. “The men provided vodka, drugs and apparent affection,” she said. “They would call Girl A a ‘b***h’ or a s**g’ if she did not cooperate.”
Insar Hussain, 38, of Bishop Street, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of having penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 17 years.
Mohammed Ghani, 39, of Bamford Way, Rochdale, was found guilty of five counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 14 years.
At the Court of Appeal, Meyric Williams, representing Insar Hussain, argued the fact his client was acquitted of some of the charges he faced was a 'wholesale rejection' of the prosecution's case. His client was convicted on 'general evidence' which was at times 'vague', he said.
Charlotte Rimmer, for the Crown, said it was a 'perfectly appropriate and reasonable verdict for the jury to reach'.
Clare Wade KC, for Mohammed Ghani, said her client’s offending was ‘not the worst’ within the gang and that the crimes committed by other members involved ‘sex parties’ and the ‘supply of Class A drugs’.
Ms Wade also pointed to a number of mitigating factors, saying Ghani, who was aged between 19 and 21 when the offences took place, was ‘young’ at the time and that he has subsequently lived a ‘law abiding life’ and not gone on to commit any further sex offences.
Ms Rimmer argued Ghani’s sentence was, however 'entirely just' and 'not excessive' considering the defendant’s ‘very serious offending’, including ‘passing the complainant among his friends’ and the use of alcohol.
Lord Justice Holroyde, leading a bench of three senior judges, dismissed the appeals against sentence and also Hussain's appeal against conviction.
The appeal judges noted Hussain was acquitted of six counts of rape, two offences of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, three offences of indecency with a child, one of sexual activity with a child and trafficking. Ghani was acquitted of ten allegations of rape, one of offence of sexual activity with a girl under 13, indecency with a child and buggery.
"The jury had to consider a complex indictment reflecting wide-ranging evidence covering a long period of time of damaged young women," said Lord Holroyde. The two victims had suffered 'dreadful sexual abuse at the hands of predatory men', he said.
Lord Holroyde rejected the argument that the verdicts was a 'wholesale rejection' of the prosecution case, going on that the acquittals showed only that that the jurors were 'unsure' that Girl A had been raped on other occasions. He said there was 'no inconsistency' in the verdicts.
"The jury were entitled to and clearly did accept parts of (Girl A's) evidence as truthful, accurate and reliable," he said, while the sentences handed down were 'stiff but not excessive'.
Last year's trial heard Mohammed Ghani was aged between 19 and 21 at the time of his crimes. Girl A said he would collect her from school whilst she was still wearing her school uniform. He would have sex with her regularly and persuade her to have sex with his friends.
This would take place at a number of locations including the Butcher’s flat, Syke Moor, Saddleworth Moor, Tandle Hill Country Park, a car park at Hollingworth Lake in Littleborough, next to Greenbank primary school in Cronkeyshaw Common in Rochdale, and another car park, on Norman Road in an area called Sparthbottoms which she knew as ‘the office.’
On one occasion at the flat on Whitworth Road, she was put in the bedroom containing a single stained mattress with no sheets, and described feeling ‘trapped like a prisoner’ as Ghani and a group of his friends ‘took it in turns’ to get her to perform oral sex on them.
Mohammed Ghani also persuaded her to have anal sex, and later encouraged her to have sex with his cousin who was in his 30s and on holiday from Pakistan. “Ghani asked her to have sex with him because he had never had sex with a white girl before,” Ms Rimmer added.
Of Insar Hussain, described as a ‘close friend’ of Mohammed Ghani and also between 19 and 21 at the time, he would have sex with her on a ‘large number of occasions’, often picking her up and dropping her off at home afterwards. Girl A described him as as ‘cocky’ and ‘outgoing’ and that he would ‘go too far all the time with everything’. He would say to her ‘oh go on suck my d***’, it was said.
Sentencing, Judge Tina Landale said: “It’s clear from the evidence, from their appearance and behaviour, that you were well aware of their young ages and their vulnerabilities. They were both immature and naive children, loved by their families.
“They both wanted to be grown up and they wanted to be loved. As children they believed they had street credibility, but in reality that was fake. Each girl was a child ripe for exploitation from unscrupulous older men. Your behaviour towards them was highly predatory, controlling and manipulative.”
She said that the men ‘hooked’ the girls for their own ‘sexual pleasure’, adding that the victims showed ‘real courage’ in the legal proceedings.
The sentences in full:
Mohammed Ghani, 39, of Bamford Way, Rochdale, was found guilty of five counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 14 years.
Insar Hussain, 38, of Bishop Street, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of having penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 17 years.
Jahn Shahid Ghani, 50, of Whitworth Road, Rochdale, was found guilty of six counts of penetrative sexual activity and one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. He was jailed for 20 years
Martin Rhodes, 39, of Dinmore Avenue, Blackpool, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 12-and-a-half years.
Ali Raza Hussain Kasmi, 36, of Brotherod Hall Road, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of indecency with a child. He was jailed for eight years.
