"I've been living in a nightmare": Abuse survivors' words after sick paedophile who preyed on them is jailed
“Their bravery in speaking up was considerable and cannot be underestimated”
“I feel I’ve been living in a nightmare”.
Those are the gut-wrenching words of a survivor, who is among seven young girls targeted, trafficked, groomed and abused by predatory and “dangerous” paedophile Bawan Harwe.
Through statements written by the girls and their loved ones, the heartbreaking toll of the abuse - which has ruined friendships and caused “immeasurable” psychological harm - was laid bare.
Flanked in the dock by a Kurdish-Sorani translator and a security guard, Bawan Harwe was forced to listen to every word the survivors of his abuse had to say during his sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday (June 11, 2026).
Dressed in a blue puffer jacket, dark shirt and trousers, cowardly Harwe spent much of the sentencing hearing with his head down, looking towards the floor.
Harwe, and Sharam Muhamadi, his co-accused and friend, trafficked the girls, arranging for them to be brought from another part of South Yorkshire to addresses linked to them in Doncaster.
After plying the girls with alcohol and drugs, Harwe then sexually abused six of the seven girls. All seven complainants were aged between 12 and 15-years-old at the time of the offences.
Some of the girls were friends and were taken together, in pairs, to be sexually abused by Harwe in Doncaster.
Many of the girls described feeling as though their lives have split into two - the time before they were subjected to horrific and degrading abuse in Doncaster and the time after.
Several said they no longer feel able to trust people, and feel as though they do not want to leave the safety of their homes.
“Since this happened to me, I feel like I’ve been living in a nightmare. I don’t think I’ve been properly happy since I was taken to Doncaster,” Girl A said, in her statement to the court.
Girl B added: “I don’t really ever feel completely safe anymore…I don’t feel like I really trust anyone.”
Some of the girls - all of whom are entitled to lifelong anonymity - described the burden of having to constantly repeat what happened to them to family, police, barristers and under cross-examination during two trials.
The first trial, held last year, collapsed before jurors were able to return verdicts.
“I’ve had to repeat the trauma over and over. I feel drained,” said one.
Girl E was just 12-years-old when Harwe provided her with cocaine and raped her.
A statement from Girl E’s mother revealed the survivor is now a “shell of herself,” and immediately afterwards turned to drugs in a bid to block out what had happened to her.
The girls’ unwavering courage and fortitude through two trials helped to secure Harwe’s conviction, after jurors found him guilty of 15 offences, including five counts of rape on Tuesday (June 9, 2026).
It has also helped to take Iraqi-born Harwe, aged 28, off the streets.
Judge Sarah Wright sentenced him to 29 years behind bars, praising the complainants for their “immeasurable courage” as she did so.
“They showed immeasurable courage in giving evidence and, in effect, having to re-live their abuse in this court. Their bravery in speaking up, knowing they would be asked about intimate sexual details, was considerable and cannot be underestimated,” she said.
After judging Harwe to be a dangerous offender with a “clear sexual interest in young children,” Judge Wright also made Harwe the subject of a three-year extended licence, bringing his total sentence to one of 32 years.
She told Harwe: “The harm you’ve caused is of immeasurable proportions...their childhood and adolescence can never be reclaimed. Each of them has suffered immense psychological harm. They will continue to suffer throughout their lives.
“The victims were targeted because of their age by you. All were vulnerable.
“You groomed them with money and e-cigarettes...You plied them with alcohol and drugs, and you then, raped and abused them,” continued Judge Wright.
Sobs could be heard coming from the public gallery, as the details of Harwe’s abhorrent crimes were set out by Judge Wright.
Harwe formerly of Hexthorpe Road, Doncaster, was found guilty of six counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view of exploitation, one count of rape of a girl under 13, seven counts of rape of a girl aged 13/14/15, two counts of adult meeting a girl under 16 years of age following grooming, and two counts of false imprisonment.
He admitted one count of rape of a girl under 13, along with multiple counts of making indecent images of children prior to the trial.
Seven members of the jury who returned unanimous guilty verdicts on Tuesday returned to see Harwe sentenced.
Muhamadi skipped out on the trial last month, after its first week, and a manhunt is currently underway to locate him. He was last seen in South East Birmingham on May 18, 2026, the date he first failed to appear at court.
Jurors found Muhamadi, aged 22, guilty of two counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view of exploitation in his absence.
Judge Wright adjourned sentence for Muhamadi, to “allow more time for him to be found.”
Muhamadi, formerly of Hexthorpe Road, Doncaster, was cleared of one count of rape of a girl under 13, one count of rape of a girl aged 13/14/15 and two counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view of exploitation. A charge of sexual assault on a female was dropped during court proceedings.
Vape shop worker Harwe sexually abused six of the girls, all of whom were then aged between 12 and 15, after targeting, and meeting some of, them over Snapchat.
He subsequently subjected the girls to grooming using booze, drugs and e-cigarettes.
Opening the case against the defendants during their trial, prosecutor Claire Holmes described this as an attempt to “effectively bribe” the young girls to “submit to various sexual indignities.”
She told jurors: “If those means did not achieve their goals then the girls were intimidated in various ways, for example not being allowed to leave where they were until they the males had been sexually satisfied.
“The Crown’s case is that although the seven girls met with the suspects willingly - in some or all of those circumstances the apparent consent to some of the sexual activities was achieved in fact by the defendants by the use of the substances which they provided to the girls.
“Accordingly, the sexual acts were perpetrated in truth, either by submission, not as a result of true consent and / or by the girls being unable to give consent due to being under the influence of drugs and alcohol and / or they were forced to have sex.”
Defending, David Brooke KC, said it was right to note his client has no prior convictions, and referred to a written defence note, outlining Harwe’s mitigating circumstances, submitted on his behalf to Judge Wright.
No such circumstances were aired in open court, however.
Sending Harwe to begin his decades-long stretch behind bars, Judge Wright told him: “You repeatedly lied throughout this trial about your involvement in all those matters seeking to deflect blame and to deny that you had any sexual interest in children.”