Rochdale stallholder jailed 35 years for grooming and raping girls

A Rochdale market stallholder who led a group that groomed and raped two schoolgirls has been jailed for 35 years, part of a combined 174 years in prison handed down to seven men convicted over sexual offences committed between 2001 and 2006. The victims were exploited from the age of 13, prosecutors said, in locations across the Greater Manchester town including flats, cars, car parks and disused buildings.

Mohammed Zahid, 65 and known locally as Boss Man, was convicted in June of multiple counts including rape, indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex. Zahid, who ran a lingerie stall at Rochdale Indoor Market, provided the teenagers with free underwear, money, alcohol, food and places to stay as part of the grooming that led to repeated sexual assaults. He was given the longest sentence at 35 years. Other defendants received terms ranging from 12 to 26 years; among them Mohammed Shahzad and Naheem Akram were each jailed for 26 years, Nisar Hussain for 19 years and Roheez Khan for 12 years. One defendant, Kasir Bashir, was sentenced in his absence after absconding and is believed to have left the country.

Court testimony described both girls as having deeply...