Kessur Ajaib, 43, Sageer Hussain, 39, and Mohammed Makhmood, abused their victims ‘in the most horrendous way’ 25 years ago, the Crown Prosecution Service said
Three men have been found guilty of raping teenage girls in Rotherham 25 years ago.
Kessur Ajaib, 43, Sageer Hussain, 39, and Mohammed Makhmood, abused their victims “in the most horrendous way” after targeting them “in isolated locations”, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Hussain is already serving a lengthy sentence after he was jailed for 19 years in 2016 for raping a 13-year-old girl in the South Yorkshire town.
He will be sentenced again in November after was found guilty on Wednesday of raping a girl alongside Ajaib and Makhmood, who were convicted of raping a second teenager. The convictions are the latest to arise out of the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, which is the huge investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
A jury heard how the girl Hussain raped was about 14 at the time and is now in her 30s. Hussain, who was about the same age, led her down an alleyway in Rotherham town centre and said he would not let her back out unless she had sex with him.
Prosecutors told the jury how Hussain raped her with two other people present, one female and one male. They said she cried throughout the ordeal as her exit was blocked.
The second girl was also about 14 when Ajaib and Makhmood raped her, the court heard. Prosecutor Andrew Bailey told the jury how Ajaib was about 18 when he raped her in an alleyway.
Mr Bailey said Makhmood, who was about 18 or 19 at the time, raped the same girl in an old graveyard in Rotherham as she fought against him. He said that he called her a “slag” and a “dirty b***h” before spitting at her and laughing. Mr Bailey said she “did not dare tell anyone.”
The offending took place between 1999 and 2002, the court heard. Hussain is due to be sentenced again on November 7, the NCA confirmed. Ajaib and Makhmood are due to be sentenced on November 21. All three were remanded in custody by Judge Charles Thomas.
NCA senior investigating officer Alan Hastings said: “Ajaib, Hussain and Makhmood subjected two young girls to devastating acts of sexual abuse, the consequences of which the victims have lived with for almost 25 years. Those victims have now, at last, had their voices heard and their accounts believed.
“While this could never eradicate the suffering caused by their attackers, I hope it will pave the way for the women to move forward with their lives.” Liz Fell, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s organised child sexual abuse unit, said: “These men deliberately exploited the victims’ youth and vulnerability to manipulate and control them.
“They sexually abused the victims, who were children, in the most horrendous way. The treatment these young girls endured was appalling – they were attacked in isolated locations and subjected to humiliation and verbal abuse.”
The NCA says Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement operation of its kind in the UK and has identified more than 1,100 children involved in the exploitation. The agency said 46 people have now been convicted.
Ajaib, 43, of Walter Street, Rotherham, was found guilty of one count of rape and one of indecent assault. He was found not guilty of a further count of rape. Makhmood, 43, of Falding Street, Rotherham, was found guilty of one count of rape.
Hussain, 39, formerly of Rotherham and currently a serving prisoner, was found guilty of one count of rape. He was acquitted of two counts of raping the girl who was raped by the other two defendants. Hussain was jailed in 2016 alongside seven other men by the same judge who had previously sentenced his brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras to 35, 25, and 19 years in prison respectively.
The judge in 2016 heard how Hussain’s victim, who was abused by all eight of the co-defendants, had complained to police in 2003 but the inquiry was dropped, partly because she was so terrified of her abusers. Judge Sarah Wright told the eight men: “She was targeted, sexualised and subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature.”