Three Sheffield brothers appear at court charged with a combined total of 29 sex offences

Amar Ilyas, Kamaran Ilyas and Kamar Ilyas have been charged as part of the National Crime Agency’s ‘Operation Stovewood’, the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual abuse in the UK.

The 29 sex offences the defendants are accused of relate to the alleged historic sexual abuse of three girls and a woman.

They are alleged to have taken place between 2003 and 2007, and relate to four complainants who were aged between 12 and 17 at the time. The complainants are entitled to lifelong anonymity.

Court documents state that the abuse is alleged to have been carried out at several locations across Sheffield, including a number of city parks such as Meersbrook Park, Millennium Park and Mount Pleasant Park, as well as at Heeley City Farm.

The brothers all appeared at Doncaster Crown Court yesterday via video link from Sheffield Crown Crown for a plea hearing. However, pleas were not entered, and another hearing is now due to be held at Sheffield Crown Court in June.

Judge David Dixon released the three defendants, all formerly of Meersbrook, Sheffield, on bail until then.

The charges faced by the defendants are as follows:

* Amar Ilyas, aged 38, is accused of a total of 20 offences – five counts of raping a girl under 13; five counts of raping a girl aged between 13 and 15-years-old; two counts of raping a female under 16; four counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15; two counts of indecent assault on woman over 16 years of age; one count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and a single count of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16.

* Kamar Ilyas, 36, is charged with two counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with girl under 13; two counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15 and one count of rape of a girl aged under 13.

* Kamran Ilyas, 35, is accused of four counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15.

Operation Stovewood has been set up to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse in and around Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, following the grooming gangs scandal in the town.