Members of Rochdale grooming gang given lengthy jail sentences

Seven men who groomed two vulnerable teenage girls in Rochdale and treated them as “sex slaves” have been jailed.

- Mark Brown North of England correspondent

The ringleader, Mohammed Zahid, 65, of Crumpsall, was given the longest sentence, of 35 years.

He was convicted of raping two girls, identified in court only as Girl A and Girl B, on multiple occasions. He was also found guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.

The gang members raped one or both of the girls between 2001 and 2006 from when the children were 13.

The girls had “deeply troubled home lives” and were given drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and places to stay.

The girls, who did not know each other, were expected to have sex “wherever and whenever” the men wanted, including in filthy flats, in cars and on nearby moors, Manchester Minshull court heard.

Girl A told a three-day sentencing hearing this week that it had “destroyed” her life. “The abuse has affected every part of my life,” she said. “From what I look like, relationships, health, to my mental health.”