Three men jailed for 1990s sexual abuse of girl

Three men have been jailed for sexually abusing a vulnerable teenage girl in West Yorkshire in the 1990s.

Zahid Hussain, Mohammed Chhibda and Basharat Wali "deliberately targeted" the younger girl "in the selfish pursuit of their own sexual gratification" in Dewsbury and Ossett between 1994 and 1997, West Yorkshire Police said.

Hussain, 48, Chhibda, 49, and Wali, 46, - all from Dewsbury - were sentenced on Thursday following a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

In a statement read to the court, the survivor, who was between 13 and 17 at the time of the offences, said: "They took pieces of my soul, pieces of my body, pieces of me that I will never get back."

Hussain, who was was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, was jailed for 10 years and six months, while Chhibda was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for two counts of indecent assault.

Wali, who had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault, was jailed for 12 momths.

The court heard the girl's childhood had been "significantly disrupted" after she was introduced to groups of older teenage boys and adult men.

She stopped regularly attending school, was supplied with alcohol and sexually assaulted by the defendants at multiple locations, including at a party and in a parked vehicle.

A fourth man, Jagtar Sahota, 65, from Leeds was sentenced on 29 April to 21 years in prison for 11 counts of rape, 11 counts of indecent assault and one count of actual bodily harm.

His offending took place between 1997 and 2000 against the same victim.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the victim had been working at one of Sahota's takeaway businesses, where she was "isolated and vulnerable", having already suffered sexual exploitation by other men.

In a statement for the court, the survivor said: "I was so young, so vulnerable, and they knew exactly what they were doing.

"They didn't care that I was a child. They didn't care that I didn't understand. They used me, abused me then discarded me.

"The worst part was the abuse didn't stop when it ended.

"It never ends. Every time I go into a bathroom or hear certain music played in a car, the fear and memories flood back like a tidal wave."

Det Ch Insp Rob Stevens said: "Her victim personal statement makes plain the devastating impact these offences had, leaving her with psychological trauma which haunts her to this day."

Julia McSorley, specialist prosecutor for the CPS's Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, said: "These perpetrators of sexual abuse all deliberately targeted this victim, because she was younger, and vulnerable, in the selfish pursuit of their own sexual gratification.

"The sentences represent an important measure of accountability for these serious offences, which have had a profound and lasting impact on the victim."

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