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.
33. Tony Chapman: Jailed for 25 years in May 2018
A 48-year man from Rotherham convicted of 17 child sexual abuse offences was sentenced to 25 years in prison in May 2018. Tony Chapman, from Lindley Street in Eastwood, admitted 12 charges of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 16 between February 1998 and January 1999 when he appeared Sheffield Crown Court on the 17 April, 2018. He was found guilty of five offences against two separate girls including rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and threatening to kill following a nine-day trial at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday. The offences took place between October 2013 and May 2015, when the girls were under the age of 16. Sentencing him, Judge David Dixon told Chapman was a “very dangerous and callous man who thought he was invincible”, showing “no remorse” for his actions. Judge Dixon also referred to the complainants saying ”these brave women will be listened to and looked after”. | Submit
34. Asghar Bostan: Taxi driver rapist jailed for nine years
53-year-old Asghar Boston was found guilty of raping a teenage girl between 2000 and 2002, following a Sheffield Crown Court trial in February 2018. Bostan, formerly of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham was charged in May 2017 as part of Operation Stovewood - the NCA’s investigation into non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse between 1997 and 2013. The victim – who was aged under 16 at the time of the abuse - came forward to South Yorkshire Police in 2014 to report the abuse and the case was referred to the NCA’s Operation Stovewood team. She told officers she was given drugs and alcohol, and coerced into staying at a flat in Rotherham, where Bostan raped her on two occasions. He was sentenced to nine years in prison following a five-day trial at Sheffield Crown Court. | Submit
35. Sajid Ali: Jailed for seven-and-a-half years in November 2017
In November 2017, Sajid Ali was convicted of multiple child sex offences as part of the first Operation Stovewood trial which was held at Sheffield Crown Court. Judge David Dixon jailed Ali, then aged 38, for seven-and-a-half years after jurors found him guilty of seven counts of indecent assault. He was was convicted alongside Riaz Makhmood, then aged 39, who, during the same hearing, was sentenced to six years, nine months' custody, while a third defendant Zaheer Iqbal, then aged 40, was also sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years behind bars. Between them, the three defendants were found unanimously guilty of 15 counts of indecent assault. The court was told how all three men groomed a 'vulnerable' girl, aged between 12 and 13-years-old, before sexually abusing her in the Masbrough area of Rotherham for a period of a year during the mid-1990s. Ali, Makhmood and Iqbal would ply the girl with cigarettes and alcohol so she felt she owed them something, and threatened to tell her mother she was a 'slag' if she did not do what they wanted Judge Dixon told them: "Each of you in your own way perpetuated and facilitated the abuse of a vulnerable, young girl," adding: "Like many, she simply wanted to be liked and you preyed on that." He continued: "The memories haunt her." | Submit
36. Zaheer Iqbal: Seven-and-a-half years behind bars for child abuser
In November 2017, Zaheer Iqbal was convicted of multiple child sex offences as part of the first Operation Stovewood trial which was held at Sheffield Crown Court. Judge David Dixon jailed Iqbal, then aged 40, for seven-and-a-half years after jurors found him guilty of five counts of indecent assault. He was was convicted and jailed alongside Sajid Ali, then aged 38, who also received a seven-and-a-half year sentence and Riaz Makhmood, then aged 39, who was jailed for six years, nine months Between them, the three defendants were found unanimously guilty of 15 counts of indecent assault. The court was told how all three men groomed a 'vulnerable' girl, aged between 12 and 13-years-old, before sexually abusing her in the Masbrough area of Rotherham for a period of a year during the mid-1990s. Ali, Makhmood and Iqbal would ply the girl with cigarettes and alcohol so she felt she owed them something, and threatened to tell her mother she was a 'slag' if she did not do what they wanted Judge Dixon told them: "Each of you in your own way perpetuated and facilitated the abuse of a vulnerable, young girl," adding: "Like many, she simply wanted to be liked and you preyed on that." He continued: "The memories haunt her." | Submit