Huddersfield rapist and grooming gang member Umar Zaman who fled to Pakistan village finally jailed

From the Huddersfield Examiner and ITV News

A Kirklees rapist who went on the run has finally been captured and jailed.

Umar Zaman, 34, was part of a grooming gang who abused teenage girls in Huddersfield.

But he fled the country for Pakistan after being arrested as part of West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Tendersea investigation into historic child sexual exploitation.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison in his absence in November 2019 after a jury found him guilty of two counts of raping a teenage girl. Zaman has previous convictions for burglary, the supply and possession of Class A drugs, violence and racially aggravated public order offences and has previously served prison sentences.

He was eventually arrested on 30 May this year, while attempting to return to the UK, and appeared before Leeds Crown Court.

As well as the original sentence, he will serve eight months for failing to surrender to bail.

Zaman was part of a gang who preyed on girls as young as 12. Vulnerable girls were plied with drugs and alcohol and passed between men in Huddersfield.

At their trial, the judge branded the gang’s activities “vile and wicked” and said they “defy understanding”.

Zaman is one of dozens of men sentenced as part of Operation Tendersea – a long-running investigation by police into abuse in the Huddersfield area.

The inquiry has resulted in combined jail sentences of more than 470 years so far. That isn’t as good as it sounds. There were A LOT of defendants, and some of them didn’t get as long in prison as others.