A court in Manchester in the United Kingdom has sentenced seven men to prison terms ranging from 12 to 35 years for the systematic sexual abuse of two teenage girls in Rochdale, in the north of England, between 2001 and 2006.
Mohammed Zahid, a 65-year-old market trader and the group’s ringleader, received the longest sentence on Wednesday after being convicted of multiple counts of rape and other sexual offences against both victims.
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Six other men, aged between 39 and 67, were also convicted following a four-month trial that concluded in June.
They formed part of what would later be referred to as “grooming gangs” by UK media and be used in toxic public discourse by the far right as a means to demonise British Asians and Muslims.
The girls, who did not know each other, were both 13 years old when the abuse began.
Prosecutors presented evidence that the victims, both from troubled family backgrounds, were initially offered gifts, money, and places to stay. The abuse escalated as they were taken to various locations across the town, where they were given alcohol and drugs before being sexually assaulted by the members of the group.
Both victims provided impact statements during the three-day sentencing hearing. One described how the abuse had affected every aspect of her life, from her physical and mental health to her ability to form relationships. The other said that, at the time, she believed all men would expect sex from her and urged other victims to come forward regardless of how much time had passed.
The case represents part of ongoing legal proceedings addressing historical child sexual exploitation in Rochdale, which first came to public attention in the early 2010s. Local authorities and the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have acknowledged failures in their duty to protect the victims.
Stephen Watson, the chief constable of GMP, issued an apology in April 2022, admitting that the force had been “borderline incompetent” in the way it managed the issue. The force, along with other local institutions, had failed to act despite warnings, according to a 2022 government-commissioned report, which led to an impression that the local council and police were downplaying “the ethnic dimensions of child sexual exploitation”.
Estimates from a 2014 report suggested the number of victims who may have been exploited by men primarily of Pakistani heritage in such cases is at least 1,400.
However, the vast majority of sexual cases in the UK continue to be perpetrated by white men.
The issue was raised again in the UK earlier this year when US tech billionaire Elon Musk began using his X account to accuse Prime Minister Keir Starmer of being complicit due to his role as head of the Crown Prosecution Service at the time. The government rejected the allegations.
Other figures later seized on the issue, explicitly linking the perpetrators’ ethnicity to their crimes and blaming a culture of permissiveness towards minorities for blocking investigations, despite evidence to the contrary.
Far-right agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known widely as Tommy Robinson, frequently campaigned on the issue, blaming the UK’s Muslim community and accusing the government of a cover-up, and got Musk’s backing due to his belief that Robinson, who has been repeatedly convicted of other crimes, was blowing the whistle on the issue.
Musk called for a new national inquiry into the rape gangs, as did some politicians. Starmer initially said an inquiry had taken place and the recommendations needed to be implemented, but later changed his position and backed the calls.
Starmer told the BBC that another transparent inquiry would help improve public confidence in authorities. “That, to me, is a practical, common-sense way of doing politics,” he said.
A preliminary report released in June by Baroness Louise Casey said data on the issue was poor and in many cases non-existent, which made determining whether any ethnic group was overrepresented very difficult.
“If you look at the data on child exploitation, suspects and offenders, it is disproportionately Asian heritage,” Casey said. “If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men.”
Following Casey’s report, then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government had accepted the report’s recommendations, including the strengthening of rape law and protection for children.
Speaking in the House of Commons in June, Cooper added: “While much more robust national data is needed, we cannot and must not shy away from these findings, because, as Baroness Casey says, ignoring the issues, not examining and exposing them to the light, allows the criminality and depravity of a minority of men to be used to marginalise whole communities.”
