Pakistani-British gang convicted of sexually assaulting young girls on pretext of friendship in UK

As per reports, the prosecutor said that the girls had been "lured by the excitement of friendship with older Asian youths" but were then "targeted, sexualised and in some instances subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature".

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New Delhi: Seven Pakistani origin British men were found guilty of sexually abusing a number of young girls in the northern town of Rotherham in England, on Monday. The gang of men named Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar (37), Asif Ali (33), Tanweer Ali (37), Salah Ahmed El-Hakam (39), Nabeel Kurshid (35) , Iqlak Yousaf (34) and a seventh man who could not be named for legal reasons were convicted after a trial at Sheffield Crown Court for grooming and abusing young girls over a period of seven years, PTI reported. As per reports, the prosecutor said that the girls had been "lured by the excitement of friendship with older Asian youths" but were then "targeted, sexualised and in some instances subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature". The gang was convicted of offences including rape and indecent assault and all the seven perpetrators to be sentenced on November 16. An eighth man named Ajmal Rafiq, 39, was found not guilty of one count of false imprisonment and one count of indecent assault, the agency reported. During the latest trial, the jury was told that the men preyed on the girls' vulnerability before they were sexually assaulted and passed on to other men. The convictions are the latest to come out of Operation Stovewood, the UK National Crime Agency's (NCA) investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, which has identified more than 1,500 victims. (With inputs from PTI)