Seven men were sentenced to long prison terms totaling 106 years in the UK for sexually abusing two girls twenty years ago, following the largest child abuse investigation in Britain’s history.
The men received prison sentences ranging from seven to 25 years following their convictions in June for crimes committed in Rotherham, located in the northern region of England, during the early 2000s.
The instances originate from Operation Stovewood by the National Crime Agency (NCA), the biggest investigation into child sexual abuse in UK history that has lasted for ten years.
It started in 2014 after the release of the Jay Report, causing a stir nationwide.
It was discovered that a minimum of 1,400 girls were victims of abuse, trafficking, and grooming by male gangs in Rotherham from 1997 to 2013.
The investigation revealed that the abuse was not prevented by the police and social services.
According to the NCA, a total of 36 individuals have been found guilty as a consequence of the operation that focuses on serious, organized, and international crimes.
The most recent convictions were handed down following a nine-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
In court, it came to light that the victims, aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the incidents, were manipulated, provided with alcohol or marijuana, and subsequently sexually assaulted or attacked while in the custody of social services.
The abusers often retrieved the NCA from the children’s homes where they lived, according to the NCA.
Senior investigator Stuart Cobb at the NCA described the men as cruel and dishonest, manipulating their victims before subjecting them to extreme and harrowing abuse.
In Sheffield Crown Court, it was reported that the assaults occurred at various spots in Rotherham, including a park, a car, a supermarket car park, a cemetery, and even behind a children’s nursery.
The NCA reported that one of the girls was taken to a hotel where she was sexually assaulted by two men. In a separate occurrence, the abuser confined the girl in her home. He sexually assaulted her twice. Afterwards, she successfully fled from the house by climbing through a window.
According to the NCA, Mohammed Amar, Mohammed Siyab, Yasser Ajaibe, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, Abid Saddiq, Tahir Yassin and Ramin Bari have been jailed for their crimes from April 2003 to April 2008, as stated by LBC website.