Two men guilty of bribing Brierfield abuse victim

Furqan Amjad was jailed for 15 months

Two men have been found guilty of trying to prevent a girl from giving evidence in an abuse grooming case.

Burnley Crown Court heard the girl, who was abused when she was 12, was given money in an effort to buy her silence.

Furqan Amjad, 23, of Halifax Road and Qasim Hussain, 20, of Townley Street, both Brierfield, had denied perverting the course of justice.

Amjad was jailed for 15 months, Hussain will be sentenced later. A third man, Ased Afzal, was acquitted.

The girl, then aged 16, was bombarded with text messages and phone calls, the prosecution said.

She was coerced into travelling to Bradford where she was told to write a letter to say she had made up allegations that she had been abducted and sexually abused when she was 12 at a house on Sackville Street, Brierfield, police said.

'Extremely traumatic'

At Manchester Crown Court in April, Amjad's brother, Mohammed Imran Amjad, was jailed for four years and three months after admitting sexual activity with a child and three counts of child abduction in 2009 and 2010.

Five other men were acquitted on direction of the judge of various sex offences against the same girl.

Det Ch Insp Martin Melvin said: "We've worked extremely hard with the young victim over a long period of time.

"It has been extremely traumatic for her and her family and she has shown a tremendous amount of courage and bravery throughout the case."