TWENTY FIVE men who sexually abused young girls in Kirklees have been imprisoned for a total of 346 years after a major investigation, West Yorkshire police said in a statement on Saturday (27).
They were sentenced for their roles in the rape, sexual abuse and trafficking of eight young girls in north Kirklees between 1999 and 2012.
Reporting restrictions covering a series of trials spanning two years were lifted on Friday (26), following the sentencing of seven men at Leeds Crown Court, the statement added.
On Friday, Asif Ali (53) from Batley, Mohammed Tausif Hanif (39) from Dewsbury, Ali Shah (38) from Dewsbury, Moshin Nadat (38) from Heckmondwike, Sarfraz Miraf (38) from Dewsbury, Mohammed Nazam Nasser (38) from Batley and Amir Ali Hussain (45) from Batley were all sentenced for multiple offences.
Additionally, an eighth individual was placed under a hospital order following a finding of the facts at court.
The latest sentencing was part of Operation Tourway, which involved a multi-year investigation into the non-recent sexual exploitation of young girls in north Kirklees.
The accused were sentenced as part of five trials held at Leeds Crown Court between 2022 and 2024.
Police added that one of the men convicted received a sentence in excess of three decades during the trials.
Detective chief inspector Oliver Coates of Kirklees Police, said, “The conviction and sentencing of these latest eight men represents a significant milestone for victims in this case. Their bravery in coming forwards and identifying their abusers has allowed us to take action against men whose offending and behaviour can only be described as abhorrent in the extreme.
“Some of these men received in excess of 20 years each for the multiple offences they committed and the unbelievably callous and degrading way in which they treated these then young girls. Men such Asif Ali, who alone was found guilty of 14 rape offences, committed appalling sexual abuse on a scale which can barely be believed, and saw their young victims as defenceless commodities to be abused and traded at whim."
The others sentenced in the case are:
Khurum Raziq, 42, from Heckmondwike, Mohammed Imran Zada, 45, Zafar Iqbal, 38, Irfan Khan, 37, Omar Farooq Hussain, 39, Nasar Iqbal, 38, Mohammed Chothia, 47, Amran Mehrban, 40, all from Batley, Nasar Hussain, 46, Zafar Qayum, 44, Ansar Qayum, 47, Sarfraz Hussain Riaz, 40, Mohammed Jabbar Qayum, 43, Sarkaut Yasen, 38, Mohammed Saleem Nasir, 48, all from Dewsbury, Michael Birkenshaw, 37, from Wakefield and Bilal Patel, 42, from Leicester.
Pope Francis greets Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit near Bari, Italy, in June last year, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and then British prime minister Rishi Sunak look on
