Rotherham grooming victim receives apology from Ministry of Justice after they moved her rapist to open prison without telling her

The Ministry of Justice has apologised after moving a prisoner from Rotherham who was convicted of raping a girl to an open prison, without informing the victim first
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Bostan, a taxi driver, was charged in May 2017 as part of Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency's investigation into historic child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

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The victim – who was aged under 16 at the time of the abuse - told BBC's Newsnight last month that her attacker’s move into a category D prison had left her "petrified".

Asghar BostanAsghar Bostan
Asghar Bostan

She told the BBC she had been informed of Bostan's move after it had happened by the Ministry of Justice's Victim Liaison Unit.

"That man has left the worst trauma of them all. Every time I think of him it just petrifies me," said the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

"My main fear is that he's going to go out and do it to somebody else.

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"If they're not on top of things now, while they've got the offenders in prison, then what's it going to be like when they come out?

"I've been failed as a child and now 18-19 years down the line I'm being failed again."

A prison service spokesperson said: “We sincerely apologise for the distress caused and have taken immediate action to prevent it happening again.

“Offenders are moved to open prisons only following a thorough risk assessment. They will be returned to closed conditions if there is evidence of any increased risk.”

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Rotherham Labour MP Sarah Champion wrote to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to ask if the decision would be reversed, and who was involved in making the decision.

She wrote in the letter that she does not believe that the transfer to an open prison is "in any way appropriate".

"I am deeply concerned that, having finally achieved a measure of justice in seeing her perpetrator convicted and sentenced, [the victim] has been let down so badly," she added.

Lucy Frazer QC, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice reassured Ms Champion that Bostan is held in a prison "more than 80 miles away" from the victim, and has been made subject to a restraining order.

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Bostan, who was 47 at the time of his conviction in February 2018, will also be supervised on license upon his release, and will have to report to a police station as he is on the sex offenders' register

She admitted that the prison's offender manager should have contacted the victim's liaison officer to inform the victim of the decision, but "failed to do so"

Catagory D prisons, also known as "open prisons", have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes. Open prisons only house prisoners that have been risk-assessed and deemed suitable for open conditions.

Operation Stovewood was launched in 2014, when the National Crime Agency was asked to lead an investigation by South Yorkshire Police.

The request followed an independent review of the management of child sexual exploitation by agencies in South Yorkshire by Professor Alexis Jay.

Currently 200 officers are working on the investigation, mostly based at sites in South Yorkshire. To date 20 people have been convicted of offences identified by Operation Stovewood and those convicted have been handed prison sentences totalling around 250 years.

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