Manchester, May 10: Judge Gerald Clinton on Wednesday sentenced a 59-year-old ringleader(name withheld) to 19 years imprisonment and eight other Pakistani men for jail terms from four to 12 years on charge of gangraping and sex abusing upto 47 girls, some as young as 13, in Greater Manchester, Daily Mail reported.
Detective Inspector Michael Sanderson, of Greater Manchester Police, said none of the convicted men had ever shown ‘the slightest bit of remorse'.
The longest sentence of 19 years was imposed on the 59-year-old ringleader, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
After a series of outbursts – including reducing a female juror to tears and insulting prosecutor Rachel Smith – he was banished from the dock.
On Wednesday, he refused to attend Liverpool Crown Court to hear the judge jail him for rape, aiding and abetting rape, trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.
Judge Clifton said it was no wonder he had struck fear into his young victims, branding him an ‘an unpleasant, hypocritical bully'.
He said the girls had been raped ‘callously, viciously and violently' after being attracted by ‘flattery, free food and alcohol'.
He branded allegations that the prosecution was racially-motivated ‘nonsense' and added: ‘This was triggered by your lust and greed. These sentences would apply to all defendants whether they be white or Asian.
Two men were acquitted on Tuesday, while a twelfth alleged gang member, Mohammed Shazad, 40, fled to Pakistan last year.
Detectives believe the victims were shared around a much larger gang, but efforts to trace them have been hampered by the fact that the girls only knew them by their nicknames.
Greater Manchester Police investigated a complaint by a 15-year-old victim that she had been raped in 2008, but prosecutors opted not to press charges and the abuse continued.
Police have played down the racial backgrounds of the men, saying the girls – mostly from broken or ‘chaotic' homes – were targeted because they were vulnerable, not because they were white.
Backing them, Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the home affairs select committee, told the Today programme that highlighting the Pakistani origin of all but one of the gang risked giving ammunition to the far-Right.
But Martin Narey, former chief executive of children's charity Barnardo's, told the programme there was a ‘real problem' which had to be confronted.
‘There is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in prosecutions for such offences,' he said.
Narey added that ‘vulnerable girls on the street at night are generally white rather than more strictly-parented Asian girls'.
He was backed by Ann Cryer, a former Labour MP in Keighley, West Yorkshire. She said: ‘This is an absolute scandal.
They (the police and CPS) were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness. They had a greater fear of being perceived in that light than in dealing with the issues in front of them.
Kabeer Hassan, 25, of Oldham, was jailed for nine years for rape and conspiracy.
Abdul Aziz, 41, of Rochdale, was jailed for nine years for conspiracy and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Abdul Rauf, 43, of Rochdale, was jailed for six years for trafficking and conspiracy. Mohammed Sajid, 35, of Rochdale, was jailed for 12 years for conspiracy, rape, sexual activity with a child and trafficking.
Adil Khan, 42, of Rochdale, was jailed for eight years for conspiracy and trafficking.
Mohammed Amin, 45, of Rochdale, was jailed for five years for conspiracy and sexual assault.
Abdul Qayyum, 44, of Rochdale, was jailed for five years for conspiracy.
Failed Afghan asylum seeker Hamid Safi, 22, of Rochdale, was jailed for four years for conspiracy and trafficking.
The judge told the convicts they had treated their victims ‘as though they were worthless and beyond all respect. I believe one of the factors which led to that is that they were not of your community or religion.'
The judge branded outbursts by some of the men claiming the prosecution was racially-motivated ‘nonsense', telling them they found themselves in the dock because of their ‘lust and greed'.
Detectives are now preparing to make more arrests after they revealed they suspect up to 50 mainly Pakistani-born men took part in the abuse.
But despite the judge's hard-hitting comments, police in Greater Manchester continued to insist that the men's race and religion were not factors in their crimes.
With experts on paedophilia insisting street grooming by Muslim men was a real problem, the judge made it clear he believed religion was a factor.
