Senior judges today dismissed appeals brought by two members of a Rochdale sex trafficking gang that plied vulnerable girls with vodka and drugs and then abused them.
Insar Hussain, 38, and Mohammed Ghani, 39, were sentenced to 17 and 14 years in prison respectively in October last year after a trial in which five men were convicted and sentenced. Today, senior judges at the Court of Appeal in London dismissed their appeals against the sentences. They also dismissed an appeal against Hussain’s conviction.
The gangs abused two girls over a number of years in the mid-2000s. One of their victims, identified as Girl A, described being given drugs and alcohol by the men and being “passed around to their friends,” adding that she had to do what they said or she would be “beaten and raped.”
READ MORE: ‘Highly predatory, controlling and manipulative’: Monsters who plied teenage girls with drink and drugs before sexually abusing them
The girl told police she had met a group of young men, including Mohammed Ghani, when she was just 12. She said she was going to meet Ghani, known as ‘Gunny’, along with his brother, Jahn Shahid Ghani, and Ghani’s best friend Insar Hussain at Jahn’s flat on Whitworth Road in Rochdale.
The apartment was known as the ‘Butcher’s Flat’ because it was above an old butcher’s shop. Girl A described how she became ‘used’ to giving men what they wanted sexually, that condoms were rarely used, that they ‘bombarded’ her with phone calls and treated her like a ‘piece of meat’.
Both girls, aged 13 and 14 at the time, had difficult childhoods. One girl was reported missing to police 83 times in three years, prosecutor Charlotte Rimmer told the trial. “The men provided vodka, drugs and apparent affection,” she said. “They called Girl A a ‘b***h’ or as**g’ if she didn’t cooperate.”
Insar Hussain, 38, of Bishop Street, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 17 years.
Mohammed Ghani, 39, of Bamford Way, Rochdale, was found guilty of five charges of penetrative sexual activity with a child and jailed for 14 years.
At the Court of Appeal, Meyric Williams, representing Insar Hussain, argued that the fact that his client was acquitted of some of the charges against him was a “complete rejection” of the prosecution’s case. His client was convicted on “general evidence” that was sometimes “vague”, he said.
Charlotte Rimmer, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said it was a “perfectly appropriate and reasonable verdict by the jury”.
Clare Wade KC, for Mohammed Ghani, said her client’s crimes were “not the worst” within the gang and that crimes committed by other members involved “sex parties” and the “supply of Class A drugs”.
Ms Wade also pointed to a number of mitigating circumstances. She said that Ghani, who was aged between 19 and 21 when the offences took place, was ‘young’ at the time and that he had subsequently led a ‘lawful life’ and had not committed any further sexual offences.
Ms Rimmer argued that Ghani’s sentence was, however, “entirely fair” and “not excessive” given the defendant’s “very serious offences”, including “passing the complainant on to his friends” and drinking alcohol.
Lord Justice Holroyde, leading a panel of three senior judges, dismissed the appeals against the sentence and also Hussain’s appeal against the conviction.
The appeals judges noted that Hussain was acquitted of six counts of rape, two counts of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, three counts of indecency with a child, one count of sexual activity with a child and human trafficking. Ghani was acquitted of 10 counts of rape, one count of sexual activity with a girl under 13, indecency with a child and sodomy.
“The jury had to consider a complex case involving a wide range of evidence over a long period of damaged young women,” Lord Holroyde said. The two victims had suffered “horrific sexual abuse at the hands of predatory men”, he said.
Lord Holroyde rejected the argument that the verdicts were a “complete rejection” of the prosecution, going on to say that the acquittals only showed that the jurors were “not certain” that Girl A had been raped on other occasions. He said there was “no inconsistency” in the verdicts.
“The jury was entitled to and clearly accepted some of (Girl A’s) evidence as truthful, accurate and reliable,” he said, adding the sentences imposed were “severe but not excessive.”
Last year, the trial heard that Mohammed Ghani was aged between 19 and 21 at the time of his crimes. Girl A said he took her out of school while she was still in her school uniform. He had sex with her regularly and convinced her to have sex with his friends.
This would take place at various locations including Butcher’s apartment, Syke Moor, Saddleworth Moor, Tandle Hill Country Park, a car park at Hollingworth Lake in Littleborough, next to Greenbank Primary School in Cronkeyshaw Common in Rochdale and another car park on Norman Road in an area called Sparthbottoms which she knew as ‘the office’.
At one point, she was put in a bedroom in the Whitworth Road apartment with a single, stained mattress and no sheets. She described feeling “trapped, like a prisoner” as Ghani and a group of his friends “took turns” to get her to perform oral sex on them.
Mohammed Ghani also persuaded her to have anal sex, and later encouraged her to have sex with his cousin who was in his 30s and on holiday from Pakistan. “Ghani asked her to have sex with him because he had never had sex with a white girl,” Ms Rimmer added.
Insar Hussain, described as a ‘good friend’ of Mohammed Ghani and also aged between 19 and 21 at the time, was said to have sex with her on a ‘numerous occasions’, often picking her up and dropping her off at her home. Girl A described him as ‘conceited’ and ‘outgoing’ and that he would ‘always go too far with everything’. He would tell her ‘oh go on suck my d***’, it was said.
Judge Tina Landale said: “It is clear from the evidence, from their appearance and behaviour, that you were well aware of their young age and their vulnerabilities. They were both immature and naive children, loved by their families.
“They both wanted to be grown up and be loved. As children they thought they had street cred, but in reality it was fake. Each girl was a child ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous older men. Your behavior towards them was very predatory, controlling and manipulative.”
She said the men “hooked” the girls for their own “sexual pleasure” and added that the victims showed “real courage” during the trial.
The sentences complete:
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Mohammed Ghani, 39, of Bamford Way, Rochdale, was found guilty of five charges of penetrative sexual activity with a child and jailed for 14 years.
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Insar Hussain, 38, of Bishop Street, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 17 years.
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Jahn Shahid Ghani, 50, of Whitworth Road, Rochdale, was found guilty of six counts of penetrative sexual activity and one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He was jailed for 20 years
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Martin Rhodes, 39, of Dinmore Avenue, Blackpool, previously pleaded guilty to two charges of penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was jailed for 12-and-a-half years.
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Ali Raza Hussain Kasmi, 36, of Brotherod Hall Road, Rochdale, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of indecent assault on a child. He was jailed for eight years.