Following intervention by Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick in April 2025 and a legal battle by Open Justice UK, the judiciary has begun releasing sentencing transcripts from 90 grooming gang cases involving 385 convictions across the UK.
These documents, previously withheld as “not in the public interest”, represent the first bulk release of privately held court transcripts in UK history.
The first five transcripts detail systematic child sexual exploitation between 1998 and 2007:
- Rotherham, February 2016 – Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain and associates convicted of abusing 15 girls aged 11–17. Victims were groomed, beaten, tied up, trafficked nationwide, gang-raped, burned with cigarettes, doused with petrol and boiling water, and threatened with death. One girl was forced to miscarry at 14. Sentences: 35, 25 and 19 years respectively; others up to 13 years.
- Rotherham, November 2018 – Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, Nabeel Khurshid and Iqlak Yousef convicted of exploiting five children (1998–2005). Victims included orphaned sisters; one 14-year-old was raped in Sherwood Forest and coerced into termination after pregnancy. Sentences up to 23 years.
- Rotherham, February 2017 – Basharat, Nasar and Tayab Dad plus three others convicted of raping two girls (aged 12 and 14) between 1999–2001. One 12-year-old was kept intoxicated, raped while unconscious and became pregnant: DNA identified the father. Sentences up to 20 years with extended licences.
- Sheffield, November 2017 – Sajid Ali, Zaheer Iqbal and Riaz Makhmood (all 16–17 at time of offences) convicted of grooming and repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl. Sentences: 7.5 years, 7.5 years and 6 years 9 months.
- Rotherham, March 2025 – Brothers Robert and Mark Evans convicted of raping girls aged 13–14 18 years earlier, after plying them with drugs and alcohol. Sentences: 17 years and 14 years.
The transcripts document institutional failures by police, social services and local authorities. Victims suffered long-term depression, self-harm and eating disorders. Eighty-five further transcripts are due for release in coming weeks.
The government has announced a statutory national inquiry that will examine the ethnicity and religion of offenders and state failures.
This article was originally published by the Daily Telegraph New Zealand.
