Pakistani Grooming Gangs still active in the
Rape of Britain
A series of paedophile gangs were hauled before British courts in the last 12 months alone.
Among them are seven men who targeted two girls aged between 11 and 16 in the early 2000s, with the predators picking them up from their children's homes before plying them with alcohol and cannabis and abusing them.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how the attacks took place at locations around Rotherham, in a park, in a car in a supermarket car park, in a cemetery, even behind a children's nursery.
In one case one of the girls was taken to a hotel where she was raped by two men. On another occasion the same girl was locked inside one of her abuser's homes, raped on at least twice, and only managed to escape by climbing out of a window.
Mohammed Amar, 42, Mohammed Siyab, 44, Yasser Ajaibe, 39, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, 49, Abid Saddiq, 43, Tahir Yassin, 38, and Ramin Bari, 37, were jailed for a total of 106 years in September.
Two months later, twenty men were found guilty of the 'abhorrent' rape and abuse of girls as young as 12 in West Yorkshire.
The men received 219 years' combined jail time, with the lengthiest sentences handed to Malik Quadeer, 67, who was found guilty of five counts of rape and jailed for 22 years.
In many cases, justice has been secured by victims taking the brave decision to come forward as adults to testify to the abuse they suffered as children.
That is what happened in the case of Mubarek Ali, the leader of a sex abuse gang in Telford, Shropshire, who was handed more than a decade more in jail last spring for raping and pimping out a girl he had met when she was just 12.
Ali was part of a gang brought to justice by West Mercia Police in 2012 as part of its Operation Chalice – one of the biggest inquiries in the force's history.
Many of the seven men convicted worked for or had connections with fast-food restaurants across Telford and some of the victims were sold for sex to workers.
Officers on Chalice identified up to 110 potential victims and 200 predators operating in the town between 2007 and 2009.
Also brought to justice last year where a Rotherham gang who targeted two girls aged between 11 and 16 in the early 2000s. They include Abid Saddiq (left) and Tahir Yasin (right)
Mohammed Zameer Sadiq (left) and Mohammed Zameer Sadiq (right) were found guilty of rape
While the prosecution of groomers in the court brings a measure of comfort, plenty have voiced fears about the scale of offending that is yet to be brought to public attention.
That is certainly the view of Simon Morton, a former senior detective for Thames Valley Police, who has said that abusers are still operating in plain sight and 'influencing and arranging others to do the same thing'.
Mr Morton led the Operation Bullfinch investigation that saw 24 men of mainly Pakistani origin jailed for a total of 250 years child sex offences in the Oxford area - but he warned today: 'The guys we couldn't catch are still out there'.
More than 300 mainly white young women and the surrounding area were groomed, raped, prostituted, given backstreet abortions and forced into 'sex slavery' over 15 years.
They were systematically abused by up to ten men at a time in parks, flats and B&Bs across Oxford.
One rape victim, who was 12, was branded with the initial of a man because he claimed to 'own her' and eventually fell pregnant with one of her abuser's children.
Mr Morton said that the problem has not gone away.
'When we did this investigation, we spoke to lots of girls and there were even more offenders or suspects,' he told the BBC.
'We weren't able to turn some of the girls to talk to us and tell us their story. We had only a small amount of victims come and give evidence. It was much bigger than that.'
This is the moment police caught a paedophile with a '14-year-old' girl in a hotel room
The man was then seen sitting in a police car after being arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child
One venue used by abusers are high street hotel chains, with 504 child sex offences recorded in hotels in 2023, according to data from the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC).
A shocking example of this form of abuse emerged this week, with footage showing the moment officers stormed into a hotel room and caught a paedophile with a teenage girl.
Officers caught the pervert at a hotel in Manchester after being tipped off by a member of staff, who called 999.
The concerned worker reported that a '14-year-old girl' was in a room with an 'over-age man'.
In harrowing audio of the 999 call, it can be heard that the city venue had been notified by two women from a care home about the paedophile.
Dramatic video, filmed by a body-worn camera, shows the moment a strike team from Greater Manchester Police caught the sex fiend in the room with the schoolgirl.
An officer can be seen hammering on the door of the suspect's room, saying: 'Police! Open the door, I'm going to open it.'
Once the man opens up, officers ask him why he 'didn't answer [the] door' straightaway.
Convicted paedophile Mubarek Ali, who called himself Max, raped and pimped one of his victims out over several years in Telford
Faces of 18 members of a 20-strong grooming gang who abused children in West Yorkshire between 2001 and 2010
Dressed in a black T-shirt, the suspect is then escorted outside before being arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child.
Phil Ashford, from the NSPCC child sexual exploitation task force, said: 'Once you're behind that hotel bedroom door, there's a degree of privacy that perpetrators often don't find elsewhere when they commit abuse.
'We're talking about some of the most serious contact offending imaginable - the rape and serious sexual abuse of children.'
UK Hospitality, the trade body which represents more than 130,000 venues, says it is 'doubling down to tackle this abhorrent crime'.
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