Highlights
- Jagtar Sahota, 64, sentenced to 21 years for 23 offences including rape
- Abuse took place in Dewsbury, Ossett and surrounding areas between 1994 and 2000
- Victim was aged 13 when abuse began
- Three further men convicted; to be sentenced on June 4
- CPS Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit led the prosecution
FOUR MEN have been convicted of the rape and sexual abuse of a vulnerable girl in West Yorkshire in offences dating back more than 30 years, with the ringleader sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Jagtar Sahota, 64, of Leeds, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday (29) after being found guilty of 23 counts, including 11 rapes, 11 counts of indecent assault, and one count of actual bodily harm.
The offences took place between 1997 and 2000, when his victim was aged between 16 and 20. He was 20 years her senior.
Sahota had employed the girl at one of his takeaway businesses, where prosecutors said he isolated her and subjected her to sustained and degrading sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault by penetration at commercial and residential premises and in motor vehicles.
Three other men were also convicted in connection with the same victim. Zahid Hussain, 48, and Mohammed Chhibda, 49, both of Dewsbury, were found guilty of indecent assault offences committed between 1994 and 1999, when the victim was aged between 13 and 17. A fourth man, Basharat Wali, 46, also of Dewsbury, had already pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. All three will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on June 4.
In a statement read during Sahota's trial, the survivor described her ordeal. "There are no words what this man has done to me. He took something from me that I can never get back and it's not just what he did in his moments of abuse — it's the lifetime of destruction that followed. The pain caused didn't end when he walked away. It lives with me every single day," she said.
Police urge survivors to come forward
The court heard that the victim's childhood had been severely disrupted after she was introduced to groups of older teenage boys and adult men. She stopped attending school regularly, was supplied with alcohol, and the sexual offending against her began. Hussain was the first to assault her, dragging her by the hair into a room during a party before forcing her to perform oral sex on him. Chhibda committed a similar assault in a parked vehicle.
Detective chief inspector Rob Stevens of Kirklees District Police praised her bravery. "The survivor has shown enormous courage in coming forwards to make these men answer for the huge and lasting damage they caused her," he said, adding that the abuse had taken "a dreadful toll on her throughout her teenage and then adult life."
Julia McSorley, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service's Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, said the men had "deliberately targeted this victim because she was younger and vulnerable, in the selfish pursuit of their own sexual gratification."
She added: "The trauma of sexual abuse can cause lifelong harm. I would like to thank her for her exceptional courage in giving evidence and securing the convictions of the men responsible."
Police urged anyone who has suffered sexual abuse, however long ago, to come forward. "Specialist officers will always listen, investigate and do whatever they can to secure justice for you," said Stevens.
