Rotherham child sex abuse: Sheffield man Hemenderjit Singh-Bal, 59, dies months before trial for 17 offences

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has confirmed a 59-year-old man due to stand trial charged with 17 offences in connection to the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal, has died before his day in court.

Hemenderjit Singh-Bal, was charged by the NCA with multiple offences, including rape, indecent assault and assault, relating to four teenage girls in Rotherham in the late 90s.

An NCA spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Hemenderjit Singh-Bal, 59, of Sheffield, died on the 15th August 2023.

"Mr Singh-Bal was charged with seventeen offences including rape, indecent assault and assault against four victims between 1996 and 1999. The trial in relation to these charges was scheduled to take place at Sheffield Crown Court on February 19, 2024 having been previously postponed due to Mr Singh-Bal’s ill health."

The NCA announced Singh-Bal had been charged in May 2022. At the time, the crime agency said he had been charged with a number of offences, including rape, false imprisonment, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

His offences were alleged to have been committed between 1996 and 1999, against four female victims aged between 15 and 19 years old.

He was charged as part of the Operation Stovewood investigation into historic child sexual exploitation and abuse in Rotherham.

Following his death, the NCA spokesperson said the agency was "providing the necessary support to the victims in this case" and are "working with our partners in relation to the next steps of our investigation".

The NCA’s Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual abuse (CSA) in the UK, with officers investigating allegations of offences in and around Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The top level investigation was launched in response to an independent report by Professor Alexa Jay, who was asked to look at the issue of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and discovered that 1,400 children had been abused by men of predominantly Pakistani heritage over a 16-year period while those in authority failed to act.

South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Council were criticised for their failings.