Rotherham grooming gang leader jailed again for raping teenage girl after …

May 24, 2024, 2:45 p.m. | Updated: May 24, 2024, 2:47 p.m.

The leader of a Rotherham grooming gang has been sentenced to longer in prison after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl.

Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 42, who is already serving a 23-year sentence for raping teenagers, was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison. Although these sentences will run concurrently, he is likely to be eligible for parole at a later date.

Akhtar was first convicted in 2018 for leading a group that manipulated, befriended, gave drugs and alcohol to girls and abused them.

After he was found guilty, another victim came forward and said she had been raped by Akhtar between 2001 and 2003.

The abuse began when she was 13.

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Akhtar admitted the two additional charges of rape and two charges of sexual assault and was sentenced to his additional term on Friday.

NCA Chief of Operations Stuart Cobb said: “The victim in this case has shown tremendous courage in coming forward and telling his story following this horrific ordeal at the hands of a cruel and vindictive man.”

“Akhtar treated his victims as his own property, supplying them with drugs and alcohol while they were abused.”

Sheffield Crown Court heard that its victim was a “very vulnerable girl in difficult circumstances” and that she had begun disappearing and staying away from home.

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Akhtar called her to his car and began raping the girl, giving her alcohol and drugs, the court heard.

She described having sexual activity with him four or five times a week for about a year in his car and an apparently empty house in Rotherham.

On one occasion, he and another man intimidated her and another victim – who was “obviously desperate and unwilling” – into engaging in sexual acts.

Akhtar could be “cruel and unpleasant to her” and left her in a remote location after throwing her out of his car.

She told police: “When she sees anyone on the street who even remotely resembles the defendant, she feels sick.”

In his mitigating statement, Michael Collins said the offences were committed before Akhtar married and had a child and that he had mental health problems that “make incarceration difficult”.

“He has made serious efforts to rehabilitate himself while in prison, he has taken a number of courses with an educational focus and is now an educational mentor to others,” Collins said.

“He is doing what he can in prison to improve himself so that he can return to his wife and child when he is released.”

Judge Wright said: “I commend the victim’s courage in coming forward after all this time.

“Their childhood and youth can never be regained, the impact of your (Akhtar’s) crime on them cannot be overestimated.

“She was an extremely vulnerable young girl who came from a difficult family background and was clearly seeking attention.”