Telford grooming ring: Four men convicted of sexually abusing vulnerable girl who was ‘passed around like piece of meat’

Victim 'lost count' of number of men who abused her, court heard

Four men have been convicted of sexually abusing a vulnerable girl in Telford at Birmingham Crown Court. (SWNS)

Update - 24.12.20: The conviction of Shafiq Younas, for indecent assault, was quashed by the Court of Appeal on July 30, 2020.

Four men have been found guilty of sexually abusing a vulnerable girl who was “passed around like a piece of meat” by a grooming ring in Shropshire.

The victim had described how she was forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, raped above a shop on a filthy mattress, and violently attacked when she tried to refuse her abusers' advances in Telford between 2000 and 2003.

The girl told Birmingham Crown Court she was assaulted by other as-yet unidentified males during the abuse, which began when she was just 13 and continued into her mid-teens.

Jurors heard that the vulnerable victim was sold for sex, first by a man named Tanveer Ahmed, who had “befriended her” during a low point in her life.

Ahmed, a delivery driver at Perfect Pizza takeaway, was not on trial alongside the other defendants, having been deported to Pakistan for “unrelated offences”, the court heard.

Jurors were not told that Ahmed had previously been jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting a charge of controlling a child prostitute as part of a series of court cases that ended in 2013.

He was one of seven men jailed after an earlier West Mercia Police investigation into a child prostitution ring in Telford.

Later, the victim came into contact with the first defendant, Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, whom she said also sold her for sex, raped and abused her.

He too was among the seven men originally convicted following the earlier investigation.

The victim told police that, years after the abuse ended, she recognised photos of Ali Sultan and Ahmed from press reports on the Telford sex ring.

Asked why she did not tell anyone about exactly what happened until years later, she replied: “I think I had just had enough, I kept it to myself for all these years. Still to this day it goes through my head, all the time.”

Mohammad Rizwan, 37, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault ( Jacob King/PA) (Jacob King/PA)

During the trial, jurors watched video-recorded interviews with the victim, in which she told detectives she “lost count” of the number of men at whose hands she suffered abuse and repeatedly contemplated taking her own life as she was traded to different men for “months and months”.

The woman said her family knew nothing at the time but “people at school” somehow found out and would call her names such as “p**i-shagger” and make suggestive gestures at her.

“Not one teacher pulled me to the side and asked me if things were all right,” she said. “I was too scared to go and ask for help. But nobody said a word.”

Ali Sultan, 33, was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault (PA)

On Tuesday, Ali Sultan was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Telford, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault.

Rizwan, who alleged he had a consensual sexual relationship with the victim when she was 17, saved the girl’s phone number under the contact name “blowjob2”, jurors heard.

Shafiq Younas, 35, was convicted of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard.  (Amendment 24.12.20: his conviction was later quashed on appeal.) (PA)

Shafiq Younas, 35, of Wellington, near Telford, was convicted of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard.

Amjad Hussain, 38, of Telford, was convicted of a single count of indecent assault.

Amjad Hussain, 38, was convicted of a single count of indecent assault (West Mercia Police/PA)

Jurors cleared a fifth man, Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Wellington, of raping the girl in the back of a car.

The four men will be sentenced on Thursday.

Additional reporting by PA

If you have been affected by sexual violence, you can find help via the NHS. Rape Crisis offers specialist support for women and girls; and the The Survivors’ Trust supports people of any gender.