Eight men charged in child sexual exploitation investigation

From Nation Cymru  and Wales on Line

Eight men have been charged with 34 offences, including 17 counts of rape, following a long-running police investigation into allegations of group-based child sexual exploitation in south Wales.

The charges follow Gwent Police’s Operation Oak investigation into reports from a number of women who say they were sexually abused as children between 1985 and 1996. Detectives carried out coordinated arrests on 14 July in Newport, Swansea, Birmingham, London, Lancashire, Edinburgh and Dunoon in Scotland.

Those charged are as follows:

• Shafaq Mohammed, aged 58, of Birmingham. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He has been charged with 11 offences. They are four counts of rape of a female under 16, three counts of rape of a female aged 16 years or over, two counts of aiding and abetting the rape of a female under 16, causing the prostitution of a girl under sixteen (section 28 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956) and causing the prostitution of a woman (section 22 Sexual Offences Act 1956).
• Syed Mohammad Ashan Taqvi, aged 65, of Newport. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He has been charged with three counts of rape of a female under 16.
• Mohammed Sheikh Abdul Hannan, aged 54, of Edinburgh. His self-defined ethnicity is British Bangladeshi. He has been charged with two counts of rape of a female aged 16 years or over, indecent assault on a woman over 16 years of age, three counts of aiding and abetting the rape of a female under 16 years of age or over and two counts of conspiring to rape a woman aged 16 years or over.
• Kevin Lawrence, aged 54, of Dunoon. His self-defined ethnicity is White European. He has been charged with two counts of conspiring to rape a woman aged 16 years or over and causing the prostitution of a woman (Section 22 Sexual Offences Act 1956).
• Sheikh Mohammed Tahir Ullah aged 73, of Newport. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Bangladeshi. He has been charged with one count of rape of a female aged 16 years or over and one count of rape of a female under 16.
• Aminur Rahman Chowdhury, aged 58, of Tottenham, London. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Bangladeshi. He has been charged with one count of rape of a female aged 16 years or over.
• Shakeel Babur, aged 58, of Lancashire. His self-defined ethnicity is British Pakistani. He has been charged with four counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16.
• Murad Ali, aged 57, of Swansea. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He has been charged with two counts of rape of a female under 16.

The eight men, aged between 54 and 73, are all British citizens and have been bailed to appear before Newport Magistrates’ Court on 24 July.