Three migration-background men were convicted at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday of raping a girl in Rotherham between 2008 and 2010. Two of them, Mudasar Hussain, 37, and Kamir Ifzal Khan, 37, were convicted in their absence and remain at large. The third, 42-year-old Ghazanfar Hussain, Mudasar Hussain’s brother, has been remanded in custody.
Mudasar Hussain was convicted of 12 counts of rape. The girl was 13, going on 14, when she met him, and 14 when she met Khan, who was convicted of two rapes and one count of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Ghazanfar Hussain was convicted of one count of rape.
Melissa Garner, a specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Mudasar Hussain and Kamir Khan separately groomed a young and vulnerable girl with alcohol, drugs and gifts. They raped her multiple times between 2008 and 2010 at various locations around Rotherham. Ghazanfar Hussain was quick to take advantage of the vulnerable victim when the opportunity presented itself. Their abuse has caused the victim serious and lifelong harm.”
She met Mudasar Hussain, known as “Muddy,” in Rotherham, a notorious grooming gangs hotspot, when he was around 20. He demanded meetings, threatened to find her, and plied her with drugs and alcohol, then raped her at a house in the town. The abuse lasted around 18 months, in the house, in public spaces and in his car, and she told officers he threatened her with a baseball bat.
While he was later out of the country, she met his brother Ghazanfar, known as “Gucci,” not knowing they were brothers. He offered her and a friend a lift home, parked at a business property, led her into an enclosed area, and raped her after threatening not to take them home unless she had sex with him. She did not see him again.
She later met Khan, known as “Kammy,” at a takeaway where he worked. He gave her food, money, and cigarettes and led her to believe they were in a relationship, then raped her over the next seven months. He asked her to have sex with other men; she refused. One day he left her with a man who raped her, then told her he had owed the man a favor.
Khan, who was on unconditional court bail, fled on a flight to Qatar on September 22 and is believed to have traveled on to Pakistan. Mudasar Hussain was on conditional bail and had surrendered his passport to the National Crime Agency; officers say he may still be in the United Kingdom, or he may have left the country illegally.
Philip Marshall, head of Operation Stovewood, said the two men “have attempted to avoid justice but my officers are determined to find the men, to ensure that both of them serve the sentences handed down to them in due course.”
Operation Stovewood, formed in 2014 to investigate child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, has identified around 1,150 potential victims and secured 60 convictions against 55 people, including these three men. The National Pulse has previously reported on another Stovewood conviction in the town.
All three are due to be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, November 13, two of them in their absence.
