Five men to be sentenced for sex attacks on seven Rotherham girls

They are among six men convicted of a number of offences, including rape and sexual assault, as part of the National Crime Agency’s investigation into allegations of historic abuse and exploitation in Rotherham.CRIME: Police disclose more in bid to find man wanted over kidnap and drug offences in SheffieldMasaued Malik, aged 35, Aftab Hussain, 40, Abid Saddiq, 38, Sharaz Hussain, 35, as well as two men aged 33 and 35, who can’t be named for legal reasons, were found guilty following an eight week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

A seventh man, Mohammed Ashan, 35, pleaded guilty to a number of offences at the beginning of the trial.

Masaued Malik, Aftab Hussain, Abid Saddiq and Sharaz Hussain are to learn of their fate today when they are sentenced alongside one of the men who is unable to be identified.

The other two offenders are to be sentenced at later dates.

They abused seven girls, who were all under the age of 16, between 1998 and 2002.

The NCA said the girls ‘were all vulnerable and craving attention and love’ and were ‘deliberately targeted for the sole purpose of becoming sexual objects for the men’.

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The NCA said: “At the time, none of them had the maturity to understand they were being groomed and exploited, believing that sex was some kind of ‘necessary price’ for friendship.

“They were given alcohol and drugs, belittled and passed around to other men for their gratification, and were vulnerable because of their need to be loved. All seven suffer the emotional effects of the abuse to this day.”

The attackers were said to have often acted ‘as a group’ and were ‘happy to share girls around amongst each other’.

A lengthy investigation into abuse established that the men plied their victims with drugs and alcohol and the girls were often raped by multiple offenders.The NCA launched an investigation into historic child sexual exploitation in Rotherham after an independent report established that around 1,400 victims had been abused by men of predominantly Pakistani heritage between 1997 and 2013 while those in authority failed to act.