During a sentencing hearing held on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), Romauld Stefan Houphouet, aged 37, an Ivoirian national of Spital Lane, Sheffield, and Absolom Sigiyo, 42, a Zimbabwean national, of Longfellow Drive, Rotherham, were jailed for 20 years and 18 years, six months respectively.
Jurors found them guilty of a catalogue of sex offences committed against two 15-year-old girls, who were repeatedly abused by Houphouet and Sigiyo.
A third man, Jacek Brzozowski, aged 35, of Middle Avenue, Rawmarsh, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to an offence of one count of penetrative sexual activity with a child during the trial is now due to be sentenced next month (April 2025).
All three defendants were prosecuted through the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood.
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 the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual abuse in the UK.
The 30 sex offenders included in the list have been jailed for a combined total of 458 years and six months.
Speaking after Houphouet and Sigiyo were jailed, an NCA spokesperson said a total of 1,100 victims have been identified, and a number of active investigations remain ongoing.
*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.
5. Shahid Hussain: Shameless Sheffield paedophile evaded justice for 21 years after police failed to act when victim reported him
Shahid Hussain evaded justice for his attack on a vulnerable girl, who was then aged 14, for more than 20 years - and even fled the country to avoid the consequences of his indecent assault; but he was finally jailed during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on September 24, 2024. While Hussain, of Ferrars Road, Tinsley, Sheffield, was free to do, and live his life, as he chose in the intervening years, the girl he preyed upon in a ‘dark, muddy lane’ in Rotherham in 2003 has continued to suffer, feeling as though her ‘life has been ruined,’ the court heard. Judge Graham Reeds KC explained: “After the attack she went to the police, and gave the same account she told the jury…no allegation was taken further at that time.” He told Hussain: “When the case was restarted, you left the country, you didn’t come back for the trial, you had to be brought back.” “She considers her life ruined by what you did.” Hussain was arrested when National Crime Agency (NCA) officers involved with Operation Stovewood officers investigated the allegation some years later.He was charged and bailed to appear at Sheffield Magistrates Court on August 2, 2018 but absconded before he could appear. NCA officers identified that Hussain may have left the country, and obtained a European Arrest Warrant. After five years on the run, Hussain was caught by Bulgarian police officers on November 26, 2023 as he tried to enter the country from Turkey, at the Kapitan Andreevo border post. Judge Reeds said Hussain knew the girl - now a woman, who is entitled to lifelong anonymity - ‘to be vulnerable’ when he targeted her. Judge Reeds sentenced Hussain to eight years’ imprisonment, and told him he would be required to serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody, after which time he will face deportation. | NCA
6. David Saynor: Jailed for 24 years
David Saynor, aged 77, was jailed for 24 for years for a string of offences against girls in Rotherham in the late 2000s and early 2010s, taking his victims out for rides in his vehicles, plying them with alcohol, encouraging them to undress or dance for him, and then in some cases raping or sexually assaulting them. His victims were between the ages of 12 and 18 when the offences happened. They were sometimes collected from their school or care homes in his stretch Hummer, taken to or from teenage discos in Rotherham, or just for rides around the area. Girls would be given money for cigarettes, food or occasionally drugs. Saynor actively encouraged them to call him if they needed picking up from somewhere, and often told them to bring friends. On one occasion he picked up one of his victims, who was aged only 12 or 13 at the time, and took her back to the yard where he stored his limousines. He went on to rape her in an office building there. One victim was abused repeatedly over a period of two years when she was 14 and 15 years old. She recalled being picked up in her school uniform with groups of other girls, given alcohol, cigarettes and money. On one occasion, when she was on her own, he raped her in the back of the limousine. Afterwards, he threatened to hurt her family if she told anyone. Another victim, who was 16-years-old and in care at the time, was initially given a job by Saynor handing out leaflets for his company. On one occasion she was driven to an area of Sheffield she didn’t know and told to perform a sexual act on him or be left there, miles from home and with no means of getting back. Saynor was arrested by officers from the NCA’s Operation Stovewood in 2020, after numerous victims identified him. Following a five-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court he was found guilty of 15 charges relating to eight victims on July 24. He was sentenced on Thursday, August 15, 2024. | NCA
7. Adam Ali: Jailed for 13 years
Adam Ali, 43, was investigated and convicted as part of the National Crime Agency's Operation Stovewood, looking at allegations of child sexual abuse in the South Yorkshire town. Ali, known as Razwan Razaq at the time of his offending, carried out his attacks between 2002 and 2004, using his car to drive vulnerable young girls to various locations where he assaulted them. He was convicted of three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving girls aged as young as 12 and 13 following a trial in May this year. Ali was released from prison in April 2023 after serving an 11 year jail term for separate sexual offences investigated by South Yorkshire Police. He was arrested by the NCA just a month after his release after officers were notified that he intended to travel to Pakistan. On July 9, 2024 a judge at Sheffield Crown Court sentenced him to a further 13 years in prison. He will also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 15 years. | Submit
8. 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