The courageous child abuse survivor responsible for sending seven sex offenders to jail for 124 YEARS
“I wanted to face every one of them down.”
Strength, courage, fortitude, are all adjectives that could be used to describe Rotherham child abuse survivor, Sarah Wilson, who was exploited by at least 150 men by the age of 16. But none of those words come even close to doing her justice.
Sarah has now given evidence in three criminal trials, enduring the ordeal of facing her attackers in court, and holding her own under cross-examination from experienced criminal barristers.
That evidence has been instrumental in securing convictions for seven sex offenders, each of whom are currently serving prison sentences totalling 124 years behind bars.
Not only has Sarah given evidence in each trial, but she has also opted to read out her victim impact statements each times, ensuring that some of the men who stole her childhood away would be forced to listen to every word she had to say.
The most recent sentencing hearing took place last month when Riyasth Hussain, who Sarah describes as being “highly dangerous,” was sent to begin a 20-year sentence.
Sarah is currently on the waiting list for a life-saving operation, but even that could not stop her from attending court and letting Hussain know “I’m your karma.”
Hussain, aged 45, is the 50th person to be convicted as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood, which investigates non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
It was launched in 2014, after the explosive report from Professor Alexis Jay revealed at least 1,400 children in Rotherham had been subjected to grooming and abuse by gangs of men, predominately of Pakistani heritage, between 1997 and 2013.
“I’ve been numb for such a long time, and going through the process [of the three trials]. I’m just relieved that part of my life is done and concluded. I feel free,” she said.
“I looked at every single abuser…I told them: ‘I’m your karma’,” said Sarah during a quiet moment in the days after Hussain’s sentencing hearing.
We can use Sarah’s real name because she has waived her right to anonymity as part of her quest for justice and in her tireless efforts to also ensure the full truth is known about the honour killing of her sister, Laura Wilson, and the inaccuracies she says were published in the serious case review that followed.
Laura was just 17-years-old when she was murdered by her boyfriend Ashtiaq Asghar in October 2010, after she told his family about their secret relationship.
Sarah said: “I’ve always said from the beginning that I would face them. But I had to do it for Laura.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to get my sister’s truth out there without coming forward, so I’ve never had a choice because of all the lies and misinformation, without using my life to fix it.”
Despite the protracted legal battles, and her imminent medical procedure, Sarah’s fight also continues because she wants to be involved with the ongoing Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs.
She says those leading the national inquiry, which is set to take three years and will focus on factors including ethnicity, religion and culture, are doing a “good thing.”
“They’re coming for the people who were at the top. The people who were paid to be aware [of what was going on], the people paid to protect us,” she said.
“I was going through court cases, and now I’m waiting for a life-saving procedure, so I’m just doing little bits.
“I do want to be part of the inquiry, I do feel it’s important for everyone’s story to be heard, because we’ve all had similar experiences, and were all treated in a similar way by groomers, by people in authority.”
After speaking out again this year, and potentially becoming involved with the inquiry, Sarah wants to move forward with her life.
“I’m hoping this will be my last year [of speaking out as a survivor, and on behalf of other survivors] but I think there are enough people doing amazing work around things,” she explained.
“I don’t want to make my past my future, and I want to get on with my life.
“I have a sense of relief that justice has been done. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got the justice I deserve,” said Sarah.
She acknowledges, however, that while “justice has been done” in terms of the seven men convicted, the vast majority of the men who abused her - starting when she was just 11-years-old - are still walking free.
“I’ve had 150 abusers, I’ve brought seven to justice. Where are the others?”
Sarah, now aged 35, credits the National Crime Agency with having done an “amazing job” in bringing Hussain and the six other men convicted of abusing her to justice.
They are: Abid Saddiq, Mohammed Amar, Yasser Ajaibe, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, Mohammed Siyab and Obaidullah Omari.
“The NCA has done an amazing job. I don’t think they get enough recognition,” she said.
“They came in not knowing what they were going to uncover, they’ve done amazing work. “My contact officer has been absolutely amazing.”
She urges other survivors to come forward, and trust in the court process.
“To survivors I would say you’re not a child anymore, you’re an adult. They can’t hurt you as an adult. Come forward, speak to police, and get your perpetrators put behind bars. It’s something that’s going to be bothering you for the rest of your life if you don’t,” she said.
“I know that if I hadn’t come forward I would be going out of my head,” she said.
“I was exploited by at least 150 men.”
Sarah was just 11-years-old, and had not yet started secondary school, when the horrific abuse that made her life a daily misery for years began.
“I was exploited by at least 150 men. I was scared, I was so vulnerable,” said Sarah.
She was encouraged to meet Abid Saddiq and Mohammed Amar - two of the men who have now been brought to justice - by an older girl, who “just made it seem so normal.”
“She just said she had an older boyfriend, who buys her drinks and clothes…she encouraged me to meet them at my school. It was shut and we met them on the primary school playground,” said Sarah.
Within moments of meeting Saddiq and Amar, Sarah was asked how many men she had slept with and was encouraged to do a degrading “virginity” test.
Sarah was subsequently forced into a cycle of abuse, in which she was regularly subjected to physical and sexual attacks and as part of the grooming process and was isolated from her mum and her sister with threats of similar behaviour against them.
“They were alright at the beginning. It wasn’t always gruesome. It started off with chilling, drinking, smoking. But by the end of the night, you have to do something for them,” she said.
“I felt like the only people I did have were my perpetrators…I had it drilled into me for so long that no-one cared about me, that my mum, my sister, didn’t even want me. I did believe it for a long time.
“It was only when I started coming away from the grooming that I started realising [what was really going on].”
“I thought they were my friends.”
She describes being passed around different men, sometimes literally.
“They would pass your number on or literally pass you on. They would meet each other at barber shops, takeaways, and then you would meet the next abusers,” Sarah explained.
Sarah said she was also taken to areas miles away from home, and was told she would be left there - with no means to safely return - if she did not comply with her abusers’ demands.
She said: “I was taken miles and miles away from home, they would take my phone off me. That would be the start, and ‘if you don’t do what you’re told, we’re going to leave you here’.
“I was pressured to do as they said.
“I was lost. There was no way out of the situation, you had to do what you had to do for your own safety.”
She added: “I got to about 15, 16, and they started asking me to take other girls out. And when they started asking me that I said: ‘I’ve got this mate in her 20s’. And they said: ‘We’re not on about women, we want young girls’.
“When you’re a teenager you want to be with someone your own age…what grown-a** man is wanting a relationship with a child? It’s a totally different situation, they only want one thing.”
The seven abusers Sarah helped bring to justice
1, Abid Saddiq
Age: 45
Address at time of sentence: Rotherham
Sentence: Jailed for 25 years for one count of indecent assault of a girl aged 12 years; one count of rape of a girl aged under 13; two counts of rape.
2, Mohammed Amar
Age: 45
Address at time of sentence: Elizabeth Way, Rotherham
Sentence: Jailed for 14 years plus 2 years on licence for two counts of indecent assault of a girl aged 11 years.
3, Yasser Ajaibe
Age: 41
Address at time of sentence: Walter Street, Rotherham
Sentence: Jailed for 6 years plus 1 year on licence for one count of indecent assault of a girl aged 11 years.
4, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq
Age: 51
Address at time of sentence: Richard Road, Rotherham
Sentence:Jailed for 15 years plus 1 year on licence for one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 years and one count of rape.
5, Mohammed Siyab
Age: 46
Address at time of sentence Stevenson Drive, Rotherham
Sentence:Jailed for 25 years in total for sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 years; two counts of rape and one count of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation
6, Obaidullah Omari
Age: 47
Address at time of sentence: Washington Road, Sheffield
Sentence: Jailed for 19 years for three counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault.
7, Riyasth Hussain
Age: 45
Address at time of conviction: Gerard Road, Rotherham
Sentence: Jailed for 20 years for three counts of rape
Operation Stovewood
Fifty people have now been convicted as part of Operation Stovewood - resulting in 580 years of jail time for offenders.
They 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.
The Jay report also outlined how police and social workers had failed to step in.
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 50 people sentenced so far, 45 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 580 years, four months and two weeks.
A total of 48 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.