From the Rotherham Advertiser, the culmination of this case which I reported at the beginning before the newspaper reports ceased. And BBC South Yorkshire and the National Crime Agency
Two men have been found guilty of raping a vulnerable girl in Rotherham 25 years ago. A third man – aged 14 at the time – raped a second girl, a jury at Sheffield Crown Court also found today, 23 July.
Sageer Hussain – who lived in Rotherham at the time but is currently in prison serving a sentence for separate sexual offences – is now 39 years old. Kessur Ajaib and Mohammed Makhmood – both 43 and of Rotherham – were aged between 18 and 20 at the time of offending.
The girl was attacked by Ajaib while out in Rotherham. Ajaib made conversation with the girl and gave her alcohol, before luring her to an alleyway in a residential area, where he raped her.
Makhmood carried out his attack when he found the girl waiting at a bus stop one evening. He invited her to smoke a cigarette with him, then led her to a nearby graveyard where he raped her.
The second girl, aged around 14, used to see Hussain around Rotherham town centre. On one occasion, Hussain led her down an alleyway and said he would not let her back out unless she had sex with him. She refused and he raped her.
The court was told that after Makhmood raped the girl, he called her demeaning names and spat and laughed at her.
From the prosecution’s opening remarks last month. After that public reports ceased, although I couldn’t see a definitel Court Order Reporting Restriction attached to the public lists.
Describing one of the times the teenager was allegedly raped by Hussain, Mr Bailey told the court she later said: “He said it was my own fault, I’d led him on. I shouldn’t have walked around in what I was dressed in. I deserved it and that is what white girls were for.”
Officers from Operation Stovewood – the NCA’s enquiry into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham – contacted the victims, now in their 30s, after identifying they may have been victims of child sexual abuse.
Jurors at Sheffield Crown Court found all three men guilty. All three men were remanded in custody ahead of sentencing in November. Hussain will be sentenced on 7 November while Ajaib and Makhmood will be sentenced on 21 November.
One of these girls was picked up by a boy her own age at a Youth Club, a place where ever the most cautious of parents would feel her daughter was safe; he then ‘introduced’ her to older boys.
