Rochdale grooming gang ringleader jailed for 35 years

A grooming gang ringleader who raped two schoolgirls in Rochdale has been jailed for 35 years.

Mohammed Zahid, 65, known as Boss Man, gave the girls free underwear from his market stall, expecting regular sex for him and his friends in return.

The father-of-three, who showed a "chilling disregard" for the girls, was one of seven men convicted in June of committing a raft of sexual offences between 2001 and 2006.

Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, Kasir Bashir, 50, Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 49, Nisar Hussain, 41 and Roheez Khan, 39, also received lengthy prison sentences at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

The court heard how the girls were sexually exploited in filthy flats, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses in the Greater Manchester town.

Referred to as Girl A and Girl B, they were treated as "sex slaves" and expected to "have sex with the men whenever and wherever they wanted".

Both girls had "deeply troubled home lives" and were plied with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and given places to stay by the men, the court was told.

Sentencing the men, Judge Jonathan

 said the girls' treatment at the hands of the "predatory" men was "appalling".

"They were abused, degraded and then discarded," he said.

"It would have been obvious to these men that they craved the attention that their home lives didn't provide.

"They felt they had little or no choice but to submit to the almost incessant sexual abuse meted out to them."

The paedophiles all worked either at the market or as taxi drivers, the court heard

Girl A told the jury she may have been preyed on by hundreds of men as her phone number was passed around, adding "there was that many it was hard to keep count".

She told local children's services in 2004 that she was "hanging around" with groups of older men, drinking and smoking cannabis, the court heard.

Girl B, who was living in a children's home when she came into contact with the men on the market, said police and social workers knew what was going on but "weren't concerned enough to do anything about it".

"It was in my file, when I looked it up. I read it," the woman, now aged in her 30s, told the court.

"I was picked up by the police for loitering and prostituting from the age of 10."

Social services and police have previously apologised for their past failings regarding the girls.