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.
13. Neil King: Jailed for 21 years in Septemeber 2024
Callous Neil King appeared emotionless, both as he was sent to begin a 21-year prison sentence for 17 serious historic sexual offences - including two counts of rape - and as the continuing devastation he has caused the two young girls he abused was laid bare. Sending King, aged 51, to begin his lengthy prison sentence, Judge Sarah Wright told him: “Your victims were targeted, sexualised and subjected to acts of a degrading nature. “Both were vulnerable…each of them has shown the utmost courage in coming to give evidence, after trying to bury this for so many years.” A Sheffield Crown Court hearing held on September 20, 2024 heard how both of the girls King abused, who were 13 and 14, respectively, when it started, had worked to rebuild their lives; and felt stunned and surprised when detectives from the National Crime Agency unexpectedly visited them, years later, to ask them about the abuse. Judge Wright said the fortitude the complainants, both of whom are now young women, had demonstrated by dredging up their trauma, and by giving ‘compelling’ evidence at King’s trial ‘knowing they would be accused of lying’, was ‘considerable’ and ‘commendable’. King’s shameful abuse of the complainants which began when he was 38-years-old continued in court when he had the audacity to claim that the complainants had only come forward to seek compensation, but jurors rejected his account when they found him guilty of all charges he faced at the conclusion of the trial on July 24, 2024. Judge Wright said it must have been ‘very difficult’ having the court proceedings hanging over the complainants for more than three years, something which had been exacerbated by knowing King, of Meadow Street, Rotherham, ‘had not shown one ounce of remorse’ for what he had done, even after the guilty verdicts were returned. | NCA
14. Gang jailed for 107 years
Top left to right: Abid Saddiq, Mohammed Amar, Mohammed Siyab, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq. Bottom left to right: Ramin Bari, Tahir Yassin, Yasser Ajaibe | Tahir Yasin, 38, of Burngreave Street, Sheffield - jailed for 13 years for eight counts of rape. Ramin Bari, 38, of of Derby Street, Sheffield - jailed for nine years for four counts of rape. Mohammed Amar, 43, of Elizabeth Way, Rotherham - jailed for 14 years plus two years on licence for two counts of indecent assault of a girl aged 11 years. Amar was found not guilty of one count of indecent assault. Yasser Ajaibe, 39, of Walter Street, Rotherham - jailed for 6 years plus one year on licence for indecent assault of a girl aged 11 years. Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, 49; of Richard Road, Rotherham - jailed for 15 years plus one year on licence for rape and sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 years. Mohammed Siyab, 45, of Stevenson Drive, Rotherham - jailed for 25 years for sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 years; two counts of rape; and trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation. Abid Saddiq, 43, formerly of Rotherham - jailed for 24 years plus one year on licence for indecent assault of a girl aged 12 years; rape of a girl aged under 13; and two counts of rape. | NCA
15. Neil Cawton: Jailed for 10 years in November 2023
On Thursday, November 23, 2023, jurors convicted 68-year-old Neil Cawton of a series of offences, including engaging in sexual activity with a child, indecent assault and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. During the course of the trial, Sheffield Crown Court heard how Cawton abused four girls aged between 13 and 16-years-old, during a series of incidents carried out between 2006 and 2012. Cawton would buy the girls cigarettes and alcohol from a local shop in Rotherham, inviting them back to his home where the abuse and sexual assaults would take place, the court heard. Following the verdicts, he was sentenced to a total of ten years in prison and will need to serve a minimum of six years before being considered for parole. He will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for life. | NCA
16. David Saynor: Jailed for 24 years in August 2024
David Saynor, aged 77, was jailed for 24 for years for a string of offences against girls in Rotherham in the late 2000s and early 2010s, taking his victims out for rides in his vehicles, plying them with alcohol, encouraging them to undress or dance for him, and then in some cases raping or sexually assaulting them. His victims were between the ages of 12 and 18 when the offences happened. They were sometimes collected from their school or care homes in his stretch Hummer, taken to or from teenage discos in Rotherham, or just for rides around the area. Girls would be given money for cigarettes, food or occasionally drugs. Saynor actively encouraged them to call him if they needed picking up from somewhere, and often told them to bring friends. On one occasion he picked up one of his victims, who was aged only 12 or 13 at the time, and took her back to the yard where he stored his limousines. He went on to rape her in an office building there. One victim was abused repeatedly over a period of two years when she was 14 and 15 years old. She recalled being picked up in her school uniform with groups of other girls, given alcohol, cigarettes and money. On one occasion, when she was on her own, he raped her in the back of the limousine. Afterwards, he threatened to hurt her family if she told anyone. Another victim, who was 16-years-old and in care at the time, was initially given a job by Saynor handing out leaflets for his company. On one occasion she was driven to an area of Sheffield she didn’t know and told to perform a sexual act on him or be left there, miles from home and with no means of getting back. Saynor was arrested by officers from the NCA’s Operation Stovewood in 2020, after numerous victims identified him. Following a five-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court he was found guilty of 15 charges relating to eight victims on July 24. He was sentenced on Thursday, August 15, 2024. | NCA