Police constable among 15 defendants charged in child sexual exploitation case

By Henry Clare, Reporter6th January 2020News EnglandChild Abuse, Courts / Justice, News England, Sexual Abuse, Yorkshire

A police constable and 15 other men have appeared in court charged with offences relating to alleged historic child sexual exploitation.

Amjad Ditta (pictured) showed no emotion as he briefly appeared at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The 35-year-old is a police constable based within West Yorkshire Police’s protective services operations, the force has previously said.

A spokesman said at the time of his charging that he had been suspended from duty.

Ditta, who wore a black suit and tie, spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth during the hearing, and gave his surname as Hussain.

The defendant faces a single charge of sexual touching in March 2009, when he was a serving officer.

He and the other 15 men were given bail and will appear at Bradford Crown Court on January 20.

The charges they face relate to alleged offences against three teenage girls in Halifax between 2006 and 2009.

The alleged victims were aged between 13 and 16 at the time.

District Judge Charlotte Holland said that the alleged offences were “too serious” to be dealt with by the magistrates’ court and that it was necessary for them to be heard at crown court instead.

Those who appeared on Monday, who are all from Halifax, are:

Ditta, who is charged with sexual touching
Vaqaas Abbas, 30, is charged with three counts of rape and three of supplying a class C drug
Nadeem Adalat, 34, faces four charges of rape and four of supply of a class C drug
Sajid Adalat, 43, is charged with rape
Waseem Adalat, 33, charged with two counts of rape, trafficking and supply of a class C drug
Christopher Eastwood, 45, charged with two counts of rape and two counts of supply of a class C drug
Mahtab Islam, 46, charged with five counts of rape, three of supplying a class A drug, three of supplying a class C drug, two of sexual assault and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Mohammed Rizwan Iqbal, 34, is charged with rape
Ishtiaq Latif, 32, is charged with sexual activity with a child
Asad Mahmood, 33, is charged with two counts of rape and trafficking
Khalifa Mughal, 36, is charged with six counts of rape, supply of a class C drug, supply of a class A drug and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Younis Mohammed, 34, is charged with rape and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent
Nadeem Nassir, 39, is charged with rape, supply of a class C drug and making threats to kill
Shahzad Nowaz, 40, is charged with rape, supply of a class C drug and making threats to kill
Shazad Nazir, 44, charged with two counts of rape and two of supply of a class C drug
Sohail Zafar, 36, charged with rape and supplying a class C drug.