Operation Stovewood 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 between 1997 and 2013. It also outlined how police and social workers had failed to step in.
It is a National Crime Agency operation, and is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual abuse in the UK.
Over 200 arrests have been made since the operation was launched.
*If you are concerned about a child and believe they are being exploited, please report it to South Yorkshire Police so they can help.
You can get in touch with them by calling 101, or going online and using the force's chat function or online portal at: https://smartcontact.southyorkshire.police.uk/
Call 999 if they are in immediate danger.
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9. Jacek Brzozowski: Sentenced to 21 months suspended for two years in May 2025
A man who sexually abused a vulnerable child at a party 13 years ago has been sentenced, following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. Jacek Brzozowski, then aged 35, of Rotherham, had sex with the 15-year-old girl during one of a number of parties held at his home at which she and her friend were raped by other men. Brzozowski was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, at Sheffield Crown Court on May 21, 2025. He has also been placed on the Sexual Offenders Register for 10 years. Romauld Stefan Houphouet, 37, an Ivoirian national of Sheffield, and Absolom Sigiyo, 42, a Zimbabwean national of Rotherham were previously sentenced to more than 38 years in total for rape and other offences against the girls, at Sheffield Crown Court on March 3. 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”. At one of the parties Brzozowski, then aged 22, took one of the girls up to a bedroom, where he had sex with her. Houphouet, who had raped the girl previously, found them together and became angry. He told Brzozowski to leave, and then raped the girl again in an act of revenge. Specially trained officers from Operation Stovewood – the NCA’s investigation into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham – contacted the women, who are both now in their 20s, after identifying they were potentially victims. The women subsequently told officers about the abuse. | NCA
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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