'I won't let you win,' tenacious survivor tells Rotherham taxi driver who repeatedly raped her when she was 13

The comments were made through a statement to Sheffield Crown Court that was read this afternoon (July 9, 2024) as 43-year-old Adam Ali was sent to begin his second substantial prison sentence for the sexual abuse of two 13-year-old girls in Rotherham, neither of whom can be named for legal reasons. 

Addressing Ali directly, Survivor One - who was in a children’s home when he abused her between 2003 and 2004 - told Ali he had ‘gravely underestimated’ her.

“I’ve survived treacherous moments, and I’ve had to be a survivor. I choose not to let you win. It’s a daily choice I’ve made for the last almost 16 years, and will do so for the rest of your life.”

“I lived in a daily hell you created by your sickening actions. I had to relive it all over again to give evidence, while being attacked in a tactless way,” Survivor One said, referring to a trial at the same court in May 2024, which led to his most recent convictions.

Judge Charles Thomas described how Ali, known as Razwan Razaq at the time of his offending, would offer Survivor One lifts home in his taxi late at night, and instead of ensuring she got home safely, raped her on several different occasions. 

Jurors convicted him of multiple counts of rape as well as indecent assault, in relation to Survivor One.  

Survivor One said Ali’s abuse had ‘shattered’ her ability to trust in others, and adults in particular; adding that she had spent the intervening years living with flashbacks, nightmares, post-traumatic stress disorder and trying to ‘scrub’ away the feelings of ‘dirt and shame’. 

“You stole my childhood and innocence and burdened me with a shame that suffocated me.”

“I’ve made a lot of progress, but I still carry these feelings with me every day,” Survivor One said, but added that she had gone from being a ‘brave young girl’ to a ‘strong woman’.

She told Ali that he was in this position for his actions alone, and that the jury’s guilty verdicts had allowed her to ‘see the day when the system works’. 

Survivor One also said she was pleased that the proceedings had allowed witnesses to see Ali for ‘exactly who you are’. 

Survivor Two met Ali and his group of friends at Clifton Park in Rotherham during an incident which took place between 2001 and 2002; and after watching others in the group ply her with alcohol, Ali offered to give her a lift home in his taxi. 

It was then that he raped her, the court heard.

“She no doubt hoped and expected that she was going to get home safely that night. Instead, you raped her,” Judge Thomas told Ali, of Woolwich Road, Greenwich, South East London. 

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Jurors found him guilty of one count of rape in relation to Survivor Two, who did not provide a statement to the court.   

Ali was brought to justice as part of the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, which investigates child sexual exploitation and abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. It is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual abuse in the UK. 

NCA officers contacted the two survivors, both of whom are now in their 30s, after identifying they may have been victims.

Officers specially trained to support victims of sexual abuse listened to the women’s accounts and gathered corroborating evidence.

At the time, Ali was serving an 11-year prison sentence for the rape of a girl and two counts of sexual activity with another girl, both in Rotherham, following an investigation by South Yorkshire Police.

After Ali was released from prison in April 2023, officers were notified that he planned to travel to Pakistan. Concerned that Ali would not return to the UK, investigators worked at a pace to gather evidence required for charges to be authorised.

Defending, David Hewitt said Ali was aged between 20 and 23 at the time of this offending, and had spent the majority of his adult life either in prison, on remand, recalled to prison or under investigation. 

Mr Hewitt said Ali had spent five years under investigation for these matters, before being recalled to prison for two years following his last sentence and then on remand for over a year for the offences he was about to be sentenced for.

He told Judge Thomas that the previous offending which resulted in his previous, 11-year sentence had also taken place in the 2000s.

“His life hasn’t really properly got going,” Mr Hewitt said, adding: “There’s been no further offending since his 2008 offences.”

Mr Hewitt said he disagreed with some of the conclusions reached by the author of Ali’s pre-sentence report, which suggested that he ‘maintains’ a sexual interest in young teenage girls. 

“With respect to the author, these are old matters. It’s been 20 years since these offences were committed against the two complainants,” Mr Hewitt said. 

Judge Thomas jailed Ali for 13 years, and told him he will be required to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence behind bars. 

He told him that the extreme ‘vulnerability’ of both of the young teenagers he raped would have been ‘absolutely clear’. 

Judge Thomas also made Ali the subject of a 15-year sexual harm prevention order, and told him he will be required to remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.