Newcastle grooming gang member who raped vulnerable girl given 29-year prison term
A heroin dealer who raped a vulnerable girl and was part of a grooming gang which gave drugs to teenagers before prostituting them has been jailed for 29 years.
Another member of the Newcastle gang which caused sustained psychological damage to victims who thought they were friends was jailed for 12-and-a-half years.
Northumbria Police controversially investigated the group with the help of an informant called XY who himself was a child rapist who was paid £10,000 for his information.
One of the victims said the men who got her addicted to drugs were “monsters”.
In a victim statement read out at Newcastle Crown Court, another said she still had flashbacks to what happened to her six years ago at parties, known as sessions, where girls were given drugs and then persuaded or forced to have sex with different men.
And a third said the gang members put her down and thought “they are superior to women, and girls do not have the same rights as men”.
Judge Penny Moreland sentenced Jahangir Zaman (bottom, right), 45, of Hadrian Road, Newcastle, to 29 years.
He was convicted of raping a girl by forcing her to give him oral sex.
He was also found guilty of conspiracy to incite prostitution, drugs offences, and following a separate police investigation, conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.
When Zaman was interviewed by police he denied the offences, saying he was married with daughters the same age as the complainants.
Roy Brown, defending, said: “He blames no-one but himself.”
His privately-educated associate Mohammed Azram was jailed for 12 and a half years.
The 35-year-old, from Croydon Road, Newcastle, picked up girls from a courtyard in the city’s West End known as “The Box”.
One victim said he took her to a party where she saw another girl, who did not make a complaint to the police, being treated like a slave.
John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, said: “(The witness) described her as looking upset, she was dirty, the bedclothes were dirty, her clothes were ripped.”
Men would drop things on the floor and make her pick them up.
Azram, who appeared polite, decent and kind, was in fact using grooming behaviour, Mr Elvidge said.
Azram, who married in Pakistan, played a “leading role” in the conspiracy, he added.
Linda Strudwick, defending, said Azram was a drug addict who had enjoyed running a shop his parents bought for him.
His barrister said he hoped to live with his sister, a bank worker, in Dubai when he is released, as the state is drug-free.
She said he attended Grainger Grammar School before moving to “Durham Boys’ School” but got into drugs after moving to Newcastle College for his GCSEs.
He admitted a string of drugs offences and was convicted of one count of sexual assault and one count of inciting prostitution.
In victim statements, one called the gang members “monsters” and said she no longer trusted men.
Another said: “The way they tricked us into thinking they were our friends was disgusting.”
A third added: “They made me feel like a piece of meat, and that makes me feel sick.”
More gang members will be dealt with throughout the week.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2017, All Rights Reserved. Pictured – (top row left to right) Nadeem Aslam, Mohammed Azram, (bottom row left to right) Abdul Sabe and Jahangir Zaman (c) Northumbia Police / PA Wire.
