Five members of a Rochdale grooming gang, who repeatedly attacked two young girls ‘like pieces of meat’ in lair dubbed ‘The Butcher’s flat’ two decades ago, have been jailed for more than 70 years.
The victims, known only as girl A and girl B, were aged 13 and 14 when they were plied with alcohol, cannabis and Ecstasy pills before being sexually assaulted for around two years by various men, either together or on their own.
Girl A also suffered ‘degradation’ as she was filmed while blacked out from vodka, being sexually assaulted with a bottle as men laughed. The video was then shared around Rochdale, the court heard.
On another occasion, she told Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, she was urinated on by one man as she performed oral sex on another.
The five men – Mohammed Ghani, Jahn Shahid Ghani, Insar Hussain, Ali Razza Hussain Kasmi, and Martin Rhodes – were convicted of sexual offences after a 12-week trial earlier this year.
Passing sentence, Judge Tina Landale told the defendants: ‘Your cases, together and individually resulted in appalling abuse of two young women who were children when you offended against them.
‘They were both, immature, naive children, who were loved by their families.
‘Each girl was a child, ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous older men.
‘Your behaviour was highly predatory, controlling and manipulative.
‘You each hooked them and used them for your own sexual pleasure.’
The trial heard the victims would often be picked up from outside their schools, still in their uniforms, and sexually assaulted against a school wall, in cars, in public parks, on Saddleworth Moor and in flats and houses in Rochdale.
One flat was known as the ‘Butcher’s flat’, as it was above an old butcher’s shop. The only item it had in an upstairs bedroom was a bare stained mattress used for the abuse.
Girl A said the abuse began after a chance meeting with Mohammed Ghani, now aged 39, of Bamford Way, Rochdale.
He would have sex with the youngster then pass her on to his friends where she was also pressured into multiple sexual encounters with men, one after the other.
Girl A described becoming ‘accustomed’ to giving the men what they wanted sexually, that condoms were rarely used, that they would ‘bombard’ her with calls and treat her like a ‘piece of meat’.
Read More: Five members of Rochdale grooming gang who repeatedly attacked two young girls
