United Kingdom: Members of child sex exploitation ring sentenced to up to 35 years in prison
The case gained major traction after the Labour Party was accused of covering up the origin of some of the alleged perpetrators, who were Pakistani nationals, to avoid social tensions.
Police images of the seven convicted
A United Kingdom court convicted seven men, many of Pakistani origin, who were part of a child sexual exploitation ring and who raped and forced two underage girls into prostitution to prison terms ranging from 12 to 35 years.
The courts ruled that the defendants are responsible for these crimes, which occurred between 2001 and 2006. The case that gained major traction in the U.K. because of the alleged cover-up of the racial origin of the offenders by the Labour Party over fears of social tensions.
"These two girls were extremely vulnerable. They were passed from hand to hand for sexual purposes and were abused, humiliated, debased," Judge Jonathan Seely, the case's investigating judge, said in remarks picked up by AFP.
The leader of the network, Mohammed Zahid, born in Pakistan, received the longest sentence: 35 years in prison.
During the trial, prosecutor Rossano Scamardella recounted that the abuses inflicted on the two girls, who were 13 years old at the beginning of the alleged acts, lasted from 2001 to 2006.
The prosecutor recounted that the two girls were forced to have sex "with several men on the same day, in dilapidated apartments, on moldy mattresses" or even "in cars, parking lots or abandoned warehouses."
The seven men were prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton, an investigation launched in 2015 by Greater Manchester Police into cases of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.
LATEST
