Rotherham man admits to raping teenager

A PREDATOR who was previously jailed for more than 20 years for a string of sexual offences has admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl in Rotherham in the early 2000s.

Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 42, appeared in Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday (17) where he pleaded guilty to committing two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault between August 2001 and July 2002.

The court heard that Akhtar would pick up the teenager in his car and drive her to various locations before raping her.

He would give her alcohol and drugs and make her believe she was in a relationship with Akhtar.

He is also accused of threatening to drive her to unknown places and leave her stranded if she refused to engage with him in sexual activity.

He once kicked the girl out of his car for declining his demand for sex and she had to walk for hours, the court heard.

Akhtar, who is serving a 23-year prison term after being convicted in 2018 of sexual offences, is now being prosecuted as part of Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency’s major investigation into historic child sexual offences in Rotherham.

His sentencing will take place on December 18.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s legal manager Zoe Becker said Akhtar “targeted the young victim and used drugs and alcohol to groom her for sex.”

“The lifelong physical and emotional trauma caused to victims by men like Akhtar cannot be understated.

“Last year, to deal with some of the more complex and challenging child sexual abuse cases, we established our dedicated Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit to share specialist understanding, build strong cases and increase the number of successful prosecutions.”

Becker urged any victims of child sexual abuse to report the crimes to the police and “there is always help available.”