Huddersfield grooming: Seven convicted of rape and sex assault

The case is part of a wider investigation into the sexual exploitation of girls in the Huddersfield area

A grooming gang has been convicted of raping young girls, who were drawn into a "dark and sinister world" of sexual abuse.

The group preyed on two teenage girls in the Huddersfield area, with one estimating she "had sex with up to 300 men".

They gave the girls drink and drugs and did not "see them as human beings".

Usman Ali, Banaras Hussain, Abdul Majid and Gul Riaz and three other men were convicted of rape and indecent assault.

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The men denied the charges against them and went on trial at Leeds Crown Court

The family of one girl, who was 14 when the abuse started, tried to stop the meetings and would go out looking for the youngster.

When the case was raised with social services her family was told "she must love it if she keeps going back", the jury was told.

The court heard that the second girl was 12 years old and doing paper rounds in her school uniform when she came to the attention of the gang.

The men "used her for sex" and on one occasion she was thrown out of a car drunk, with her trousers around her ankles.

'Vile offences'

Speaking after the case Michael Quinn, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "The girls were drawn into a dark and sinister world where they were passed around to men who used them sexually without any regard for whether they were consenting."

Det Ch Insp Richard McNamara, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "The men involved in these vile offences have robbed their victims of their childhood and abused them in truly appalling ways."

The offences took place between 1995 and 2007.

The men, who will be sentenced on Wednesday, are:

• Usman Ali, 34, of Huddersfield, convicted of two counts of rape

• Banaras Hussain, 39, of Huddersfield, convicted of one count of rape

• Abdul Majid, 35, of Huddersfield, convicted of two counts of rape

• Gul Riaz, 43, of Huddersfield, convicted of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault

• Three other men who cannot be named for legal reasons, each convicted of a count of rape