Grooming gang who raped and abused two teens in Rochdale after plying them with booze in 5yr reign of terror jailed

A GROOMING gang who raped and abused two teens in Rochdale in a five-year reign of terror have been jailed.

The seven men “passed” the victims around for sex and preyed on them in squalid flats and car parks in the town.

They groomed the girls from the age of 13 and made them their “sex slaves” by plying them with gifts, including alcohol and drugs.

The victims both had “deeply troubled home lives”, which meant they were easy prey for the fiends.

During a five-year horror ordeal, the girls were expected to have sex “whenever and wherever” the defendants and other men wanted.

As well as flats and car parks, the predators abused the teens on rancid mattresses, in cars, alleyways and disused warehouses.

Mohammed Zahid, 64, Kasir Bashir, 50, Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, Roheez Khan, 39, Mohammed Shahzad, 43, Nisar Hussain, 43, and Naheem Akram, 48, were today jailed for a total of 174 years.

Three of the abusers, Zahid, Ahmed and Bashir were born in Pakistan and worked as stallholders on Rochdale’s indoor market.

Ringleader Zahid – known as Boss Man – gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to both victims.

The dad-of-three was previously jailed for five years after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.

In her evidence, one of the girls said she could have been targeted by more than 200 offenders as her phone number was swapped in the town but “there was that many it was hard to keep count”.

While, Girl B said she was living in a local children’s home when she was preyed on by Zahid and fellow market traders Ahmed and Bashir, who were all born in Pakistan.

She said she assumed various agencies knew what was going on as police regularly picked her up after social workers labelled her a “prostitute” from the age of 10.

Zahid thought he was “almost untouchable” as he brazenly visited the care home to pick her up and later drop her off, the court heard.

Bashir did not attend the current trial after he absconded while on bail before the trial got under way.

It can also be reported that Shahzad, Akram and Hussain were remanded in custody with their bail revoked in January before the jury was sworn in.

Police received intelligence that the three Rochdale-born taxi drivers were planning to leave the UK and had already paid a deposit for their transport.

While Pakistani-born Khan was one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a “profoundly vulnerable” 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009, it can now be revealed.

Zahid was found guilty of 20 offences including rape, indecency with a child, and attempting to procure a girl into having unlawful sexual intercourse.

Bashir was convicted of rape and indecency with a child, while Ahmed was guilty of nine offences including rape.

Khan was convicted of rape, alongside Shahzad, Hussain and Akram.

Hundreds of vulnerable young girls were exploited by Asian men in Rochdale in a nationwide scandal.

A report in 2024, which covers 2004 to 2013, identified 96 men still deemed a potential risk to children – but most of these are yet to be prosecuted.

There were also at least 74 children being sexually exploited – and in 48 of those cases there were serious failures to protect the child.

It also detailed other examples that showed “compelling evidence” of widespread, organised sexual abuse of children in Rochdale from as early as 2004 onwards.

It wasn’t until 2010 – more than two years later – that GMP finally launched Operation Span into the abuse claims.

GMP confirmed a total of 32 fiends have now been jailed for 300 years as part of two major investigations into Rochdale.

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