Thu, 19 Dec 2019
Michelle Heeley QC led Sarah Allen, both of No5 Barristers’ Chambers, in the prosecution of a historic child sex abuse case in which four men have been found guilty and sentenced.
The jury at Birmingham Crown Court had heard that the vulnerable 12-year-old girl, now an adult, was ‘traded like a piece of meat’, sold for sex and raped.
The offences took place in the Telford area sometime between 2000 and 2003.
Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, was unanimously convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to eight years, with an extended licence of two years. He is already serving a six-year sentence for previous sexual offences.
The jury had been directed to find him not guilty of another rape charge after evidence was presented evidence that he was in Pakistan.
Co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault. He received a five-and- a-half year prison sentence. Samantha Forsyth, of No5 Barristers’ Chambers, defended Rizwan.
Amjad Hussain, 38, of Acacia Drive, Leegomery, Telford, was unanimously convicted of a single count of indecent assault and cleared by jurors of another similar offence. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years. Martin Liddiard, of No5 Barristers’ Chambers, led the defence for Amjad Hussain.
Jurors cleared Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, of raping the girl in the back of a car.
All defendants had denied the charges.
Opening the trial, Michelle Heeley QC had said: “This case involves the sexual exploitation of a young girl, a girl passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several young men, some of whom are in the dock.
'Each of these defendants deny that they in any way abused anyone. The prosecution say, having heard the evidence, you can be sure they did.'
The prosecution told the court the victim was first sold for sex by Tanveer Ahmed who had ‘befriended’ her during a low point in her life and that she continued to be abused by a group of men in Telford until she was in her mid-teens.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims to have been taken to a flat above a Perfect Pizza shop in Telford, to have sex and had lost count of the men she was forced to sleep with.
The woman came forward years after the alleged abuse ended after she recognised two men from press reports on West Mercia Police’s Operation Chalice investigation.
Tanveer Ahmed was not on trial because he was deported to Pakistan for ‘unrelated offences’.
To read more about the case visit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-50854290
Michelle Heeley QC, Sarah Allen, Samantha Forsyth and Martin Liddiard are all members of the Crime Group at No5 Barristers’ Chambers. To read their profiles, visit:
https://www.no5.com/people/barristers/michelle-heeley-qc/
https://www.no5.com/people/barristers/sarah-allen/
https://www.no5.com/people/barristers/samantha-forsyth/
https://www.no5.com/people/barristers/martin-liddiard/
