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History > 2015 > UK > Police (I)
Aylesbury child abuse ring:
six men
handed long prison terms
Underage girls were groomed for sex
for as little as ‘the price of a McDonald’s,
a milkshake and cinema ticket’, judge says
Monday 7
September 2015
15.22 BST
Last modified
on Monday 7 September 2015
15.47 BST
The Guardian
Press
Association
Six men who
were members of a child abuse ring in Aylesbury have been handed lengthy prison
sentences for grooming vulnerable underage girls for sex for as little as “the
price of a McDonald’s, a milkshake and cinema ticket”.
The men were convicted at the Old Bailey of a range of sex offences between 2006
and 2012, including multiple rape of a child under 13, child prostitution and
administering a substance to “stupefy” a girl in order to engage in sexual
activity.
Vikram Singh, Asif Hussain, Arshad Jani, Mohammed Imran, Akbari Khan and Taimoor
Khan were jailed on Monday for between three and 19-and-a-half years.
Most of the offences related to child A, who was present in court to see the men
who robbed her of her teenage years sent down.
In a statement, she told of her feelings of worthlessness as she battled
depression and alcohol addiction, adding: “I feel my teenage years were taken
away from me.”
During the sentencing, the judge, John Bevan QC, paid tribute to her bravery in
laying bare her life “warts and all” and said the way some of the defendants
took advantage of her vulnerability was “grotesque”.
He said: “She sought friendship amongst Asian males in their 20s and for the
price of a McDonald’s, a milkshake and cinema ticket, she became ‘liked’ by
stallholders in Aylesbury market, taxi and bus drivers.
“By the age of 13 she was sexually experienced, confusing sexual gratification
for friendship and love.”
By the time she was 16, the girl had slept with just under 70 men and her
vulnerability should have been “blindingly obvious”, the judge said.
He went on: “Why these defendants focused their attention on white underage
girls is unexplained but I have no doubt vulnerability played a substantial part
in it.
“The combination of inadequate parenting leading to rebellious children lacking
supervision provided an opportunity. If they pursued Asian underage girls, they
would have paid a heavy price in their community.”
The two victims came from troubled backgrounds and wanted to feel grown-up when
they were befriended by the men, who groomed them by showering them with
inexpensive gifts such as alcohol, DVDs, food and occasionally drugs.
While aged just 12 or 13, child A was passed between some 60 mainly Asian men
for sex after being conditioned into thinking it was normal behaviour, jurors
were told. The vast majority of the charges related to this child, while three
charges related to girl B.
During the trial, the prosecutor, Oliver Saxby QC, told the jury that the
youngsters were “easy prey for a group of men wanting casual sexual
gratification that was easy, regular and readily available”.
He said the girls’ ideas of what was right had been “completely distorted”, and
that they thought what was happening was normal and natural.
Many of the defendants were friends from the Aylesbury area. Some were married
and had children, with some working at the market and a few working as taxi
drivers.
Singh, 45, from Aylesbury, who has a wife and children, was told by Bevan he
bore a heavy responsibility for the “degradation” of child A. He was jailed for
a total of 17-and-a-half years for four counts of rape and administering a
substance with intent.
Hussain, 33, from Milton Keynes, who was convicted of three counts of rape, was
sentenced to 13-and-a-half years.
Jani, 33, from Aylesbury, received 13 years for rape and conspiracy to rape. The
court heard the bus driver had supported a wife and 17-month-old daughter in
Pakistan.
Imran, 38, from Bradford, was convicted of three counts of rape, one count of
conspiracy to rape and one count of child prostitution. The Pakistani national
was jailed for 19-and-a-half years and faces deportation afterwards. He was the
only defendant to express remorse for his actions, saying through his lawyer he
felt “guilt and shame” for what he had done.
Akbari Khan, 36, from Aylesbury, who was found guilty of two counts of rape,
administering a substance with intent, and conspiracy to rape, was jailed for 16
years. He too has a wife and young daughter.
Taimoor Khan, 29, also from Aylesbury, was sentenced to three years in prison
for one count of sexual activity with a child.
Afterwards, it emerged that child B is suing Buckinghamshire county council for
negligence resulting in the unnecessary suffering of the victims.
In a statement, she said that “no sentence could ever put right what happened”,
but added: “It’s an opportunity for all of us to say to the government and to
social services, whose job it is to protect vulnerable people, that it is time
to sit down and listen to our experiences, and I mean actually listen and
reflect on what is happening in this country.
“This would go a long way in helping them to be able to understand the problems
that exist, to enable them to prevent things like this from happening to others
in the future.”
Her solicitor, Alan Collins, added: “It is without doubt that if social services
had done more to protect the victims and spotted the crucial signs that
something was wrong, we wouldn’t be here today.
“However, the sentencing of these individuals does not make up for the failings.
As a consequence, we will now be taking legal action against Buckinghamshire
county council for their negligence in this case, which resulted in the
unnecessary suffering of these victims.”
Javed Khan, chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardo’s, which has
supported the victims, said: “These sentences send out an important message:
abusers will pay for their actions. Their crimes have had a devastating impact
on their victims.
“We will continue to work with Thames Valley police, Buckinghamshire county
council and our other partners to stamp out this terrible crime, by raising
awareness of the signs a child or young person is being sexually exploited, and
supporting victims.”
Aylesbury
child abuse ring: six men handed long prison terms
Underage girls were groomed for sex for as little as ‘the
price of a McDonald’s,
a milkshake and cinema ticket’, judge says,
G,
7 September 2015,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/07
/aylesbury-child-abuse-ring-six-men-handed-long-jail-terms
No
convictions
over 500
black and Asian deaths
in custody
Research by
Institute of Race Relations accuses state institutions of ongoing prejudice and
‘culpable lack of care’
Prisoner in cell
Saturday 21
March 2015
20.07 GMT
The Guardian
Mark Townsend,
home affairs editor
Last modified
on Sunday 22 March 2015
00.08 GMT
More than 500
black and ethnic minority individuals have died in suspicious circumstances
while in state detention over the past 24 years, but not a single official has
been successfully prosecuted, a report examining institutional racism has
revealed.
The report, by the Institute of Race Relations, concludes that too little has
changed to prevent black and Asian people dying in detention and that seemingly
racist attitudes remain a concern, with a “large proportion of these deaths
involving undue force and many more a culpable lack of care”.
It concludes: “Despite narrative verdicts warning of dangerous procedures and
the proliferation of guidelines, lessons are not being learnt: people die in
similar ways year on year.”
If anything, it says, the situation is worsening, with the privatisation and
subcontracting of custodial services making it harder to call agencies to
account. Almost 1,000 people have died in police custody alone since 1990. The
report says that some of the deaths in prison revealed a “lack of care and
disregard for human life that is so blatant that it often appears as deliberate
acts and omissions by individuals and institutions”.
Harmit Athwal, co-editor of the report, which is to be unveiled in the House of
Lords on Monday, said that while the official report into the murder of Stephen
Lawrence in 1993 was intended to challenge racism within Scotland Yard, the
ongoing catalogue of deaths suggested bigotry remained.
“‘If the Macpherson report was intended as a way of restoring community faith in
the British police, the issue of deaths in custody is the one which is
constantly undermining it. As more deaths take place and no one is ever
prosecuted, it inevitably sows seeds of incredulity, anger and despair,” said
Athwal.
The majority of the 509 black and ninority deaths studied since 1991 – 348 –
occurred in prison, with 137 cases in police custody and 24 deaths recorded in
immigration detention.
No convictions
over 500 black and Asian deaths in custody,
G, 21 MARCH 2015,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/21/500-
black-asian-deaths-custody-no-prosecutions
Man charged
with the murder
of London
teenager Alan Cartwright
Joshua
Williams, 18, charged after schoolboy was stabbed to death while riding a
bicycle on Caledonian Road last Friday
Friday 6 March
2015 20.51 GMT
The Guardian
Press
Association
A man has been
charged with the murder of teenager Alan Cartwright, after he was stabbed to
death while riding a bicycle with friends.
Joshua Williams, 18, of Davenant Road, north London, will appear at Highbury
Corner magistrates court on Saturday charged with murder and conspiracy to rob,
Scotland Yard said.
An 18-year-old man remains in custody after a warrant of further detention was
granted.
A 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man arrested following Cartwright’s death
have been bailed.
Police released footage of the moment the schoolboy was stabbed in the chest as
he cycled along a busy road in Islington, north London.
He managed to continue riding a short distance after the attack in Caledonian
Road last Friday, but collapsed and was later pronounced dead at the scene.
A postmortem examination found that Cartwright died from a single stab wound to
the chest.
Man charged
with the murder of London teenager Alan Cartwright, G, 6 MAR 2015,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/06/man-charged-with-of-london-teenager-alan-cartwright
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