All the evidence that led to Mohammed Akram and Usman Khalid being found guilty of abusing Huddersfield grooming gang victim

The Huddersfield Examiner can now report freely on the convictions of Mohammed Akram and Usman Khalid.

Now that the trial and legal discussions have concluded, it can be reported that this trial was the latest in West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea investigation. Throughout January to October last year, the investigation seen 20 men convicted and jailed for a total of 257 years.

Mohammed Akram was one of those 20 men – he had been convicted of two counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation and two counts of rape in relation to two victims.

He was just five months into his 17-year prison sentence when he returned to the dock for this trial.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the victim was groomed at the age of 11 and sexually abused by multiple men over the course several years, including Mohammed Akram and Usman Khalid. The first times Akram and Usman sexually abused her she was aged 12.

Her original abuser was takeaway worker Zahid Hassan, also known as Little Manny, of Bland Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield.

Akram introduced a teenage boy nearly a decade younger than him into the grooming gang – Mansoor Akhtar, nicknamed Boy. Akhtar also sexually abused Akram’s victim Girl N. Akhtar, now aged 27, previously of Blackmoorfoot Road, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence.

Shahnaz Malik, 57, of St Anne’s Avenue, Ainley Top, Huddersfield, and Naveeda Habib, 40, of Prince Wood Lane, Birkby, Huddersfield, were both charged with child cruelty. The jury failed to reach a verdict on their charges. 

This morning (Tuesday), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced its decision not to proceed with a re-trial and the child cruelty charges were left to lie on the file. Reporting of the verdicts was banned overnight while the CPS came to a decision.

Mohammed Akram will be sentenced for those offences on June 21, alongside his co-defendant Usman Khalid, also known as Gujji, 31, of Brook Street, Huddersfield.