Seven men who groomed vulnerable girls in Rochdale guilty of multiple sex offences
Jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for 50 offences committed by the men between 2001 and 2006
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Seven men who groomed two vulnerable teenage girls in Rochdale and treated them as “sex slaves” have been found guilty of multiple sex offences.
A long-running trial in Manchester heard that the men subjected the girls to years of misery and expected them to have sex with them “whenever and wherever they wanted”.
“The men” etc.
So satisfying those who would shriek of racism.
Three of the abusers, Mohammed Zahid, 64, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50 – all born in Pakistan – were stallholders at Rochdale’s indoor market.
Zahid, a father of three who was known as Boss or Bossman, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to both girls, as well as money, alcohol and food and in return expected them to have regular sex with him and his friends.
Zahid was jailed for five years in 2016 as part of an earlier grooming gang case. He was found guilty of sexual assault of a child after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.
Bashir did not attend the 2025 trial and jurors were ordered not to speculate why. It can be revealed that he absconded while on bail before the trial began.
It can also be reported that co-defendants Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, and Nisar Hussain, 41, had their bail revoked and were remanded in custody in January before the jury was sworn in.
Police received intelligence that the three Rochdale-born taxi drivers were planning to leave the UK and had paid a deposit for their transport, the court heard.
All three denied the accusation but the judge Jonathan Seely said the court was not prepared to take the risk that they too would abscond.
A seventh defendant, Pakistani-born Roheez Khan, 39, was also convicted in a previous Rochdale grooming trial. In 2013 he was one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a “profoundly vulnerable” 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009. He was jailed for six-and-a-half years for engaging in sexual activity with a child and witness intimidation.
They do get there though. Along with the picture caption:
Top row, left to right: Mohammed Zahid, Roheez Khan, Mohammed Shahzad, Kasir Bashir. Bottom row, left to right: Naheem Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Nisar Hussain. Composite: Greater Manchester police
No, this is better than it used to be. Back a decade the only clue you’d have as to who was The G publishing a list of the names of those convicted.