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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13. 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
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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