Three twisted brothers responsible for a catalogue of sex offences have become the latest to be sentenced in a historic abuse investigation, now spanning 53 offenders and 620 years of jail time.
Amar, Kamran and Kamar Ilyas were sentenced on June 22, 2026 for a myriad of sex offences committed against five young girls.
In July 2025, 28 months after first being charged, Amar Ilyas is understood to have fled the country, travelling to Pakistan - and possibly beyond - allowing the cowardly sex offender to skip his trial and possibly avoid ever receiving any real punishment for his heinous crimes.
He was convicted of 20 historic sex offences - including 12 counts of rape - after a trial in his absence in September 2025, and concerns have been raised about why he was ever granted bail after being charged - leaving him free to flee the country.
Judge Peter Hampton sentenced Amar Ilyas to 27 years’ custody, with a one-year extended licence period, in his absence during the June 2026 hearing.
In March 2026, two of his brothers, Kamran Ilyas, aged 38, and 39-year-old Kamar Ilyas, both of Atlow Close, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, were found guilty of a catalogue of sex offences committed against one of Amar’s victims - Complainant One.
Judge Hampton handed Kamran and Kamar Ilyas prison sentences of three years and 10 years’ imprisonment, respectively.
The three Ilyas brothers were brought to justice as part of the National Crime Agency’s large-scale investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child abuse in UK history.
It was launched in the wake of the Alexis Jay report, which was published in 2014 and described how at least 1,400 children in Rotherham had been subjected to grooming and abuse by gangs of men, predominately men of Pakistani heritage, of between 1997 and 2013.
Offenders went unprosecuted, despite police and child protection agencies having knowledge of the horrific crimes taking place for decades.
In 2014, the NCA was formally asked by the then Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police to lead an independent investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
It was set up by the NCA with the goals of supporting victims, pursuing offenders and rebuilding public confidence.
In August 2025, it was announced that the NCA would also lead in an investigation into child sexual abuse allegations made against former South Yorkshire Police officers, after concerns were raised about the force being trusted to investigate its own officers
Of the 53 people sentenced so far, 47 of them have received immediate jail terms, with sentences ranging between two and 25 years.
The combined total of the immediate jail terms passed down is 620 years, four months and two weeks.
This figure accounts for the total length of time an offender could be made to spend in custody, and does not account for concurrent sentences passed down, which do not materially affect an offender’s total sentence.
A total of 51 men have been convicted of sex offences as part of Operation Stovewood, while one man was convicted of drug offences, and a woman was convicted of offences under the Malicious Communications Act, after she broke anonymity laws to name complainants online.
Operation Stovewood has identified more than 1,150 potential victims of abuse, and in excess of 220 people have been arrested or attended a police station voluntarily.
The NCA announced Operation Stovewood would be moving to a new phase from January 1, 2024, after which time South Yorkshire Police would be responsible for any new allegations and investigations.
A number of active Stovewood investigations remain ongoing, some of which are making their way through the courts.
9. Mark Evans and Robert Evans: Jailed for 31 years in March 2025
Two brothers who raped vulnerable girls 18 years ago have been jailed for 31 years. Mark Evans, then aged 37, and Robert Evans, then aged 40, abused children in Rotherham over a two-year period starting in 2006. On March 28, 2025 at Sheffield Crown Court they were sentenced to 14 and 17 years’ imprisonment respectively for their crimes. The men, aged 18 and 21 around the time, intimidated girls and plied them with drugs and alcohol before luring them to locations where they attacked them. Two of the women subsequently told specialist investigators they were raped by both brothers. One of them was 13 at the time. She was given alcohol by Mark Evans before she and some friends accompanied him to a disused barn. He then separated her from her friends and raped her. The same woman was attacked by Robert Evans several months later, when he lured the girl to a house in Rotherham by lying that one of her friends would be there. Robert Evans plied her with alcohol as they took a bus to the house. Once Evans had the victim alone at the house, he raped her. She recalled he seemed amused by this. Another woman related how she too was raped by both brothers when she was 14. She knew the men because they spent time with other girls her age. She and the first victim were later lured by Robert Evans to a house, on a separate occasion to when the first victim was attacked by him. At the house, Robert Evans forced the second girl into a bathroom and raped her. The third victim was age 13 when Mark Evans began grooming her by giving her alcohol and drugs, and calling her his “girlfriend”. The victim told officers how Mark Evans visited her at her home and asked her for sex. Fearing Evans would dump her, the girl complied with his request, and he took her into an alleyway where he had sex with her. | NCA
10. Romauld Stefan Houphouet and Absolom Sigiyo: Jailed for 38 years, six months in March 2025
Romauld Stefan Houphouet, 37, an Ivoirian national of Sheffield, and Absolom Sigiyo, 42, a Zimbabwean national of Rotherham were found guilty of raping two 15-year-old girls countless times between 2011 and 2012, at Sheffield Crown Court on March 3, 2025. Sigiyo was also found guilty of intimidating one of the victims when he pressured her in an attempt to stop her supporting the NCA investigation launched in 2018. During a sentencing hearing held on March 5, 2025, Houphouet was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Sigiyo has been jailed for 18 years and six months. The judge ordered that both men would be subject to restraint orders, to prevent them contacting the victims, and that they must sign the Sexual Offences Register. The victims told investigators they were taken to numerous parties in Rotherham where they were given alcohol and abused by the men, some of whom openly referred to them as “fresh meat”. | NCA
11. David Fish: Jailed for 12 years in November 2024
A man who subjected a vulnerable young girl to years of sustained sexual abuse 17 years ago has been jailed for 12 years. David Fish, 46, of Kilnhurst in Rotherham, raped, wounded and forced the girl to take part in sexually explicit videos over the course of two years. Fish began grooming the girl in 2007, when she was around 15 years old and in care. After approaching the girl and her friends at a local park, Fish, who was in his 20s, exchanged numbers with her. The young girl was infatuated with the much-older Fish, who often plied her with drugs and alcohol, going on to exploit her trust in him by coercing her into sex. The victim recalled on one occasion waking up to find Fish raping her. She told National Crime Agency investigators how Fish would turn violent and in one incident – when he believed she had been flirting with someone else – he smashed a mug against her head with such force that she required stitches for the resulting injury. Officers from Operation Stovewood – the NCA’s investigation into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham – launched an investigation in 2018, after reviewing a report the victim had made to police. The victim, by then in her 20s, agreed to talk to NCA officers. After investigators listened to the woman’s account, they identified corroborating evidence and arrested Fish in 2020. The officers seized Fish’s computer and digital forensic specialists subsequently trawled through a huge quantity of files saved on it. They recovered graphic sexual images of the victim as a child, which Fish had taken and kept. This evidence supported the victim’s testimony that Fish had filmed sexual videos of her – allegations which he had fervently denied. He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on November 5, 2024 for two counts of sexual activity with a child, one count of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography, one count of rape, and one count of unlawful wounding. | NCA
12. Waleed Ali: Jailed for five years in September 2024
A man has been jailed for five years for raping a girl in Rotherham 21 years ago, following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. Waleed Ali, then aged 42, of Scunthorpe was found guilty within hours of jurors beginning deliberations at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, 13 September, and sentenced immediately afterwards. Officers from Operation Stovewood – the NCA’s investigation into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham – launched their investigation after identifying and speaking with a woman they believed may have been sexually abused as a child. The woman told specially-trained NCA officers about the attack, which happened when she was 14-years-old and which she said she had not previously reported. Ali, then in his early 20s, targeted the victim after spotting her sitting alone at a water fountain in Rotherham town centre, on a day sometime in 2003 or 2004. Ali and a group of men approached the girl, and he asked her to go into a nearby alleyway with him. When she repeatedly refused his demands, Ali grabbed the girl by the arm and tried to force her to her feet. Intimidated by Ali and the men, the girl went into the dark alleyway. Having got the the girl away from public sight, Ali raped her. After launching their investigation, NCA officers arrested and interviewed Ali in September 2021. He denied the crime and told officers he felt “sick” at their questions, however he had previously been convicted for raping and indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the same alleyway in early 2003, in a case investigated by South Yorkshire Police. | NCA