Op Stovewood: Victims get justice after another six men guilty of sexually abusing young girls in Rotherham

29 Aug 2019 12:09 PM

Six men have been convicted of a number of child sexual abuse offences, including rape and sexual assault, as part of the National Crime Agency’s investigation into allegations of abuse and exploitation in Rotherham.

Masaued Malik (35), Aftab Hussain (40), Abid Saddiq (38), Sharaz Hussain (35), as well as two men aged 33 and 35 who can’t be named for legal reasons, were found guilty following an eight week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

From left to right: Abid Saddiq, Aftab Hussain, Masaued Malik, Sharaz Hussain

The offences relate to the abuse of seven girls who were all under the age of 16 between 1998 and 2002 in Rotherham and the surrounding areas.

The girls, who were all vulnerable and craving attention and love, were deliberately targeted for the sole purpose of becoming sexual objects for the men. At the time, none of them had the maturity to understand they were being groomed and exploited, believing that sex was some kind of ‘necessary price’ for friendship.

They were given alcohol and drugs, belittled and passed around to other men for their gratification, and were vulnerable because of their need to be loved. All seven suffer the emotional effects of the abuse to this day.

All the men lived in Rotherham and the surrounding areas and associated with one another at the time the abuse took place. A feature of their sexual offending was they would often act as a group, happy to share girls around amongst each other.

They knew the girls were underage and lacking in confidence and would regularly either park outside the girl’s schools waiting to engage them in conversation, or hang around at the local park, bus station or in Rotherham waiting for young girls to approach.

If the girls didn’t comply with the men’s sexual demands, they turned violent and the power exerted over the girls became more apparent. They were given drugs and alcohol and often raped by multiple offenders and they felt obliged to comply.

Operation Stovewood Senior Investigating Officer, Philip Marshall, yesterday said:

“Today, six more men join the other 14 who have already been convicted of sexually abusing young girls in Rotherham, going back as far as 1997. They exploited vulnerable girls for their own sexual gratification and I am glad that today, they have been held accountable for their devastating actions.

“The victims in this case have shown immense courage and bravery in re-living what happened to them and I would like to thank them for helping us bring their abusers to justice.

“I hope these convictions build confidence with the victims and survivors we are currently working with – and those who are yet to come forward – showing that we will listen to you and do all we can to get positive court outcomes.

“We still have a lot of work to do and are not complacent about the task we face – Stovewood is complex in its nature and scale but this will not diminish the pace of our effort.

“I would also like to thank partners for their support, particularly the Independent Sexual Violence Advocates (ISVAs). The NCA remains committed to investigate all matters within our remit to bring child sex offenders to justice”.

Kate Hurst, of the CPS, yesterday said:

"Each of these men knew the girls were either vulnerable and underage, and in some cases both, when they raped or sexually assaulted them. They were reckless and did not care if they were children or not.

"Some of the men used threats of violence and they often had sex with these children while they were drunk or high on drugs. They tried to deny their responsibility claiming that the victims were lying or that they did not know they were underage.

"Our team worked very closely with the NCA over a significant period of time during the course of this investigation in advising, building and preparing this case effectively for trial

“We were able to prove that these predators targeted and then abused girls in Rotherham for their own sexual satisfaction.”

All six men have been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday 30 August at Sheffield Crown Court.