A market stallholder who groomed and raped two schoolgirls in Rochdale and felt he was “almost untouchable” has been jailed for 35 years.
Father-of-three Mohammed Zahid, known as Boss Man, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall at Rochdale Indoor Market to both teenagers, along with money, alcohol and food, in return for the expectation of regular sex with him and his friends. One of the 65-year-old dad’s victims, Girl B, was living in a local children’s home when she was targeted by Zahid, between 2001 and 2006. He was found guilty of raping Girl A and Girl B, who did not know each other, on multiple occasions.
Fellow market traders Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, were convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B. Taxi drivers Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 49, and Nisar Hussain, 41, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A. Roheez Khan, 39, was found guilty of a single count of rape against Girl A.
Six of the men have faced sentencing today at Minshull Street Crown Court, Bashir will be sentenced in his absence after he fled the UK while on bail before the trial started.
Judge Seely said: “Both of these girls were highly vulnerable. Both had deeply troubled backgrounds and were known to the authorities. They were often missing from home.
“Both of these girls were seriously let down by those whose job it was to protect them. Their treatment at the hands of these predatory men was appalling. They were children, passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded. This is a particularly grave case.”
The judge told Zahid: “It must have been, for that little girl, a truly terrifying ordeal. You simply did not care. These were effectively gang rapes.”
Speaking about Zahid, prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told the hearing: “His offending centred around his stall which allowed him to meet many girls who he groomed and later introduced to others. (Girl B) was in the care system for most of her young life and Mohammed Zahid knew about that.
“It got to a stage where he was confident that nothing would be done about it and he would ring the care home and would also go there to pick her up and drop her off. Such was the brazen way he did this that by the end of the abuse he felt almost untouchable. It’s not as if she had no-one to turn to. She turned to the care home. She turned to social services. She felt able to tell them at some stages, or other people did, and nothing was done. People knew, authorities knew. And nothing was done.”
Social services and police have apologised for their past failings surrounding the victims, the court was told. Jurors at the trial were told that Girl B was labelled as a “prostitute” by Rochdale social services from the age of 10.
On Tuesday, it also emerged that two 16-year-old girls made complaints in writing to the market stall manager that Zahid gave them free and discounted items, and made inappropriate sexual remarks. Zahid asked one girl for her phone number and “looked her up and down”, while the other reported that he “behaved in a creepy way”.
In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case after he engaged in sexual activity in 2005 and 2006 with a 14-year-old girl whom he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school. He was one of many men who called her phone number “out of the blue” and went on to groom the “extremely vulnerable” teenager.
Zahid, who came to the UK from his native Pakistan in 1978, continues to deny his offending, said his barrister Lisa Wilding KC. She said his 2016 conviction led to the breakdown of his marriage and family life. Addressing Judge Jonathan Seely, she said: “He is someone who potentially faces spending the rest of his life in prison.
“Clearly you must pass a sentence that is just, proportionate and reflects the offending, but I would ask you to pass a sentence that perhaps allows him a glimmer of hope that at some stage he may be released.”
Jurors also found him guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.
Kasir Bashi, 50, of Napier Street East, Oldham was convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B. He has been sentenced to 29 years in prison, however he is on the run.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, was convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B. He has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Roheez Khan was told he was in a ‘different position’ to the other defendants, because he is to be sentenced for a single count of rape, committed against Girl A. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The judge said Mohammed Shahzad had been involved in an ‘appallingly depraved’ incident, when Girl A was raped after being ‘drugged’ and taken to a ‘secluded’ location. He said that Girl A had been ‘scarred for life’ by the ordeal, which was filmed and shared. Shahzad is sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Taxi driver Nisar Hussain, 41, of New Field Close, Rochdale, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Naheem Akram, 49, of Manley Road, Rochdale was convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
