A group of eight men who were part of a West Yorkshire grooming gang in the late 1990s have been jailed.
Three of the men – Ibrar Hussain, 47, and brothers Imtiaz Ahmed, 62, and Fayaz Ahmed, 45 – who are all from Keighley, were sentenced for rape at Bradford Crown Court on Friday.
They were found guilty of assaults on a girl after a trial in November and December 2024.
Five other men were jailed last year for their involvement. Reporting restrictions on the case have now been lifted, meaning details can be published.
The court heard the offenders had targeted two children.
Hussain and Imtiaz and Fayaz Ahmed were all sentenced for raping one of the girls, who was aged between 13 and 14 when the offences took place.
Prosecuting, Catherine Duffy described the girl as “extremely vulnerable and isolated at the time that she was targeted.”
In a victim impact statement, the woman, who is now in her 40s, said: “If I had been listened to sooner rather than later, maybe, just maybe, my life could have been different.
“I went through too much, too young, and I’m still trying to fix the trauma that other people have inflicted on me.”
Judge Ahmed Nadim said the girl’s mother had tried to report her missing to police “on a number of occasions”, but nothing was done.
Judge Nadim said police and social services were “either ill-equipped to properly understand what was happening at street level”, or “disinterested in addressing the needs of [the victims]”.
“To differing degrees the social services and police’s responses to the situation that they found themselves in was that they were the authoresses of their own misfortunes,” he said.
‘I lost my identity’
The victim said she was “plied with drugs and alcohol to numb the abuse”.
Giving evidence at trial, she recalled one instance where men had been “queuing up” in the corridor of a flat to have sex with her.
She said she was “groomed”, then “passed on to other men”, and later became addicted to alcohol and drugs, which she used as a “coping mechanism”.
“Nothing in this world can ever fix the damage I have been through – because of them I lost my identity.”
Hussain, of Mornington Street, was jailed for six-and-a-half years for two counts of rape, to be served concurrently.
He gave the girl heroin and had sex with her on two occasions, Judge Nadim told the hearing. At the time he was aged between 18 and 19.
Mitigating, Jayne Beckett said Hussain, who later served time in jail for drug offences, was now married with children and was a “very, very, very different man” who was involved with his local mosque and school.
Judge Nadim told Hussain his crimes had “come back to haunt you and those who hold you in great affection”.
He said: “Messages must go out loud and clear that the criminal justice system will do all it can to protect the young and vulnerable members of our community.”
Hussain smiled and waved at his family members in the public gallery before he was taken away to begin his sentence.
