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Depraved Pakistani, Muslim brothers led Telford paedophile ring
that groomed and prostituted young girls
By Mark Andrews
Shropshire Star
Published: Jul 12, 2022
Following the publication of the Crowther Report into child exploitation in Telford, Mark Andrews provides an insight into the background leading to the Inquiry.
and controlling a third girl as a child prostitute
It had been branded as Britain's worst sex-abuse scandal, with claims that up to 1,000 children could have been affected.
Concerns that Telford was the centre of an organised child-sex ring first emerged in May 2013, when seven men were jailed for a string of offences relating to four teenage girls.
Up until that time, the findings of Operation Chalice – a two-year investigation into a Wellington-based sex abuse gang by West Mercia Police – had been subject to reporting restrictions. But the conviction of brothers Ahdel 'Eddie' Ali and Mubarek 'Max' Ali, along with five accomplices, laid bare the crimes that had been taking place in the historic market town for years.
Ahdel Ali, then 25, was convicted of 18 offences. They included the rape of a 13-year-old girl, six offences of under-age sex with the same girl, three charges of controlling a child prostitute and sexual activity with a second victim, two offences of sexual activity with a child involving a third girl and offences of grooming and inciting child prostitution and sexual activity with a fourth victim. He was handed a 26-year extended sentence, with an order that he should serve 18 years in prison as well as an additional eight years on licence.
Mubarek Ali, who lived with his brother in Regent Street, Wellington, was convicted of seven offences; four of controlling child prostitution, causing child prostitution and two offences of trafficking children for prostitution. He received a 22-year sentence – 14 years immediate custody, with eight years on licence following his release.
Stafford Crown Court was told how the Ali brothers led a wider paedophile ring in the town, working with a network of associates from within the Asian community. Two of the four victims were sold as prostitutes to workers at local restaurants, while the others were encouraged to work as prostitutes. One girl was taken to a number of restaurants in the Telford area by the two brothers, Mohammed Ali Sultan and Tanveer Ahmed.
Some of the defendants worked as takeaway delivery drivers providing links with restaurant workers who provided the client base, paying £20 to £50 for sex.
Flats in the Wellington area, one controlled by Mohammed Younis, were used as brothels and Mahroof Khan’s flat in Kingshaye Road was a regular haunt for schoolgirls skipping lessons, where they had sex and were drinking and smoking cannabis.
Ahdel Ali
The victims had sex in cars with the Ali brothers and Mohammed Choudhrey, or other men, having been driven to various locations in Shropshire and Staffordshire. A country lane near The Wrekin, an empty house at Mill Bank, a car park at Ironbridge, Dothill Park, playing fields at Wrekin College, a farm on the outskirts of Telford and a park at Stoke-on-Trent were identified by the girls.
Right up to the time of his arrest in 2009 Ahdel Ali was having sex with a 13-year-old girl he had raped, while was busy recruiting another 15-year-old to add to his portfolio of girls. Contact with the girl was revealed during Ali’s trial, showing his intention to enlist her “to replace” a child prostitute who became pregnant. Before being discarded, the four-month pregnant teenager was forced by Mubarek Ali to have sex with two restaurant workers because he needed some petrol money.
Ali Sultan, then 26, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, received a seven-year sentence after admitting sex with a 13-year-old and another teenage girl, and controlling a third girl as a child prostitute.
The court heard how he twice took Girl A to a chip shop where she was paid to have sex with four men. It was said he first targeted the youngest victim when she was 12 and a year later had sex with her in his car. The second girl, who was 15, was taken to a house in Victoria Avenue, near his own home, for sex.
Ahmed, then 40, of Urban Gardens, Wellington, admitted selling a teenage girl for sex to a man in Oakengates. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Mohammed Islam Choudhrey, 53, of Solway Drive in Sutton Hill, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting paying to have sex with a teenage prostitute controlled by the Ali brothers.
Mahroof Khan, 35, an unemployed chef, of Caradoc Flats, Kingshaye Road, Wellington, admitted having under-age sex with a teenage girl. Mahrood Khan, of Caradoc Flats, Kingshaye Road, was jailed for underage sex, but walked free after spending more than 900 days on a tag while on bail. Mohammed Younis, 60, had also been jailed the previous December for allowing his flat in Kingsland, Arleston, to be used for prostitution.
During the trials, four experienced judges heard distressing evidence from four young women, who told how they were abused over a two-year period while aged from 13-16.
One young mother told how, as a child, she had been sexually abused or exploited by seven men. She was regularly taken to be sold for sex to workers at a number of restaurants and takeaway outlets in the Telford area.
During the grooming process control over the young victims was exercised by encouraging them to drink alcohol and smoke cannabis, supplying cigarettes and takeaway food and offering lifts and mobile phone top-ups.
Det Chief Insp Neil Jameson, who led a team of more than 50 officers on the investigation, said: "After years of being exploited the girls then went through a huge amount during the course of this investigation, and the trials themselves were then a real ordeal for those that gave evidence."
Operation Chalice identified more than 100 girls who had been targeted by a child sex abuse gang, and it soon became clear that the seven convictions were just the tip of the iceberg.
These fears were confirmed in 2015, when Mohammed Ali Sultan was jailed for a further 11 years at Shrewsbury Crown Court after being found guilty of rape. In 2019, he was before the courts again, where he was jailed for a further eight years after being convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault. His co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, then 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for indecent assault. Shafiq Younas, then 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, received a four-and-a-half year term for indecent assault, but was later cleared on appeal.
During that trial, Birmingham Crown Court was told how the victim was 'passed around like a piece of meat'.
Miss Michelle Heeley, prosecuting had told how the vulnerable girl had initially been befriended by pizza delivery driver Tanveer Ahmed – by this time deported to Pakistan for unrelated offences – at a low point in her life.
During the trial, jurors watched video-recorded interviews where the victim told detectives how she had been through two years of 'hell' and had repeatedly contemplated taking her own life as she was traded to different men for 'months and months'.
As concerns about the scale of sex abuse grew, Telford MP Lucy Allan raised the matter in the House of Commons and called for an independent inquiry into the matter in 2016. Telford & Wrekin Council and its partners tried to calm the situation, and assured the then-home secretary that an inquiry was not needed as ‘progress had been made’ and lessons learned.
But in 2018 it was claimed that as many as 1,000 children may have been abused by sex-grooming gangs in the town over a 40-year period. Claims were made that social workers identified the problem in the 1990s, but it was another decade before it launched an investigation. Council staff were said to view abused and trafficked children as 'prostitutes' rather than victims.
Tom Harding, then the superintendant in charge of Telford police, described the claims as sensationalism. He said he had no idea where that figure of 1,000 had come from, and said Telford was no different from any other town.
"Child sexual exploitation wasn’t even a defined category 40 years ago, so I have no idea how they have come to that figure,” said Mr Harding.
“I don’t believe Telford has a discernible problem compared to other towns. "Child sexual exploitation will be taking place all over the country and Telford is not different to anywhere else.
“Something on the scale of what was revealed by Operation Chalice wouldn’t be able to happen today without it being picked up.”
Mr Harding said the police now had officers who worked closely with the local authority to ensure the victims received support.
French court upholds burqini ban in public pools
By Simon Druker
France’s highest administrative court is upholding a ban on burqini swimsuits in the southeastern city of Grenoble’s public pools, the court announced Tuesday. Photo by Giorgio Montersino/Flickr
June 21 (UPI) -- France's highest administrative court is upholding a ban on burqini swimsuits in the southeastern city of Grenoble's public pools, the court announced Tuesday.
The ruling reversed a decision initially made by Grenoble's city council.
In mid-May, Grenoble municipal council voted 27-2 to allow the swimsuits at all but one of the city's public pools. The policy was more in line with Grenoble Mayor Éric Piolle's goal of adopting more permissive swimming regulations.
The policy was then suspended by a local administrative court. The high court's ruling upholds that decision.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted the ruling was "a victory for the 'separatism' law, for secularism and beyond, for the whole Republic."
"Our wish is to get rid of absurd restrictions," Piolle said in May, ahead of the vote.
"This includes (allowing) bare breasts and swimming costumes that give extra coverage for sun protection or for beliefs; it is not about taking a position for or against the burqini specifically."
Burqinis, invented by Australian Aheda Zanetti, are whole-body swimsuits mostly worn by Muslim women that combine the look of a burqa and bikini, only allowing for the wearer's face, feet and hands to show.
French rules on swimwear can be strict. Men are required to wear tight-fitting swimsuits, another rule Grenoble city council unsuccessfully tried to overturn.
In 2016 several French mayors tried to ban burkinis on beaches, before the proposals were blocked as discriminatory.
Gunman kills 2 during Oslo Pride festival; terror suspected
By MARIA SANMINIATELLI and KARL RITTER
People react as they lay flowers at the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway, Saturday, June 25, 2022. A gunman opened fire in Oslo’s night-life district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what Norwegian security service called an "Islamist terror act" during the capital’s annual Pride festival. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
OSLO, Norway (AP) — A gunman opened fire in Oslo’s nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what the Norwegian security service called an “Islamist terror act” during the capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival.
Investigators said the suspect, identified as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, was arrested after opening fire at three locations in downtown Oslo.
Police said two men, one in his 50s and the other his 60s, died in the shootings. Ten people were treated for serious injuries, but none of them was believed to be in life-threatening condition. Eleven others had minor injuries.
The Norwegian Police Security Service raised its terror alert level from “moderate” to “extraordinary” — the highest level — after the attack, which sent panicked revelers fleeing into the streets or trying to hide from the gunman.
The service’s acting chief, Roger Berg, called the attack an “extreme Islamist terror act” and said the suspect had a “long history of violence and threats,” as well as mental health issues.
All devout Muslims have mental health issues.
He said the agency, known by its Norwegian acronym PST, first became aware of the suspect in 2015 and later grew concerned he had become radicalized and was part of an unspecified Islamist network.
Norwegian media named the suspect as Zaniar Matapour, an Oslo resident who arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s.
The suspect’s defense lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client hadn’t talked to investigators, and he cautioned against speculation on the motive.
“He has not given any reason. It is too early to conclude whether this is hate crime or terrorism,” Elden said in an email to The Associated Press.
Upon the advice of police, organizers canceled a Pride parade that was set for Saturday as the highlight of a weeklong festival. Scores of people marched through the capital anyway, waving rainbow flags.
Police attorney Christian Hatlo said it was too early to say whether the gunman specifically targeted members of the LGBTQ community.
“We have to look closer at that, we don’t know yet,” he said.
Police said civilians assisted them in detaining the man in custody, who was being held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism, based on the number of people targeted at multiple locations.
Investigators seized two weapons after the attack: a handgun and an automatic weapon, Hatlo described both as “not modern” but did not give details.
Not far from Oslo’s cathedral, crime scene tape cordoned off the bars where the shootings took place, including the London Pub, which is popular with the city’s LGBTQ community.
Crowds gathered outside and dropped off cards and flowers at impromptu memorials.
Martin Ebbestad, 29, had walked by earlier, seen the memorials and returned with flowers.
London Pub “is our go-to place. My boyfriend left 20 minutes before (it happened). He was sitting outside in the smoking area,” Ebbestad said. “We know this place so well. It doesn’t feel unsafe, but it does feel very close.”
There is more on this story at AP News.
Turkish police clash with LGBTQ supporters and
news photographer at banned Istanbul Pride march
Officers arrested 'more than 100 people' according to organisers
By CHARLOTTE MCLAUGHLIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:40 EDT, 26 June 2022
More than 100 people have been arrested in Turkey in defiance of the ban on an LGBTQ Pride march, its organisers have said.
In the latest clash between the gay community in Istanbul and police, LGBT+ supporters and a news photographer were detained by officers dressed in riot gear.
Marchers were heading towards Beyoglu district, the heart of the city's shopping and tourism sectors, when riot police and metal fences prevented them from entering Taksim Square, where protestors traditionally gather.
Some protesters fled from officers, while others were said to have been beaten, and forcibly detained before being loaded onto buses.
Local residents were also heard and seen banging pots and pans from their windows and balconies in a show of support for the marchers as a police helicopter circled overhead.
Despite the continued crackdown and increased hostility shown by Turkish authorities, the LGBT+ community have marched every year in Istanbul since their Pride March was banned – which they claim is unlawful – in 2015.
A Turkish policeman is seen today detaining a female demonstrator during a Pride march in Istanbul
Police officers seen preventing journalists to film and take pictures of activists detained while trying to march in a pride parade, which was banned by local authorities, in central Istanbul
Organisers and the Istanbul Bar Association say that peaceful demonstrations like this one cannot be banned.
During the protest today, one group chanted: 'Discrimination is a crime, the rainbow is not'.
Kaos GL, a prominent LGBTQ group, said that shortly before the march's 5pm start police detained 52 people. The Pride Week Committee later said more than 100 had been arrested.
'We do not give up, we are not afraid. We will continue our activities in safe places and online,' the Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee said on Twitter.
The march came after local authorities in the Beyoglu district banned all Pride Week events between June 20-26, saying they could lead to public unrest due to society's sensitivities.
Images on social media showed people being searched and loaded on to buses, including at least one news photographer.
Turkish photojournalist Bulent Kilic was also seen being detained during the march as journalists' union DISK Basin-Is said today that 'many' people were beaten by police.
LGBT+ people and supporters are seen carrying a Pride flag while march in Istanbul
Turkey, one of the few Muslim-majority countries to allow Pride marches, had held the events since 2003, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party came to power.
Homosexual acts are not illegal in Turkey but the Islamic country has not made same-sex marriage legal and its conservative government has been increasingly hostile to groups it does not see as representing its religious values.
Large numbers of arrests and the use of tear gas and plastic pellets by police have accompanied some Pride events.
Counter-demonstrations by nationalists and Islamists, who claim the LGBTQ community is a danger to 'Turkish values,' have also threatened marchers.
Last year Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu labeled some university students 'LGBT deviants', while Erdogan praised his party's youth wing for not being 'LGBT youth'.
There have been prosecutions of students from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara over Pride marches but they were acquitted.
While a trial against Istanbul's Bogazici University students over an image that combined Islamic imagery and rainbow flags displayed during an art exhibition on campus is ongoing.
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