Brothers guilty of child sex offences in Barrow and Leeds

The conclusion of this trial, four years after the defendants were first reported as appearing at the Magistrates Court. From CPS North West and the NWE Mail. The reporting restriction on this final trial was so stringently kept that the case was not even named in the public list; I could only followed each days listing, not how the case was progressing in court, and I could only do that by the ID number. 

Nonetheless, now a conviction is secured we of the wider public can be informed.

Shaha Amran Miah, 48, Shaha Alman Miah, 47, and Shaha Joman Miah, 38, were convicted of child sex offences that occurred between 1996 and 2010.

Amran Miah sexually abused three children and faced 16 sexual offences, two charges of intimidation and one of kidnap. Joman Miah sexually abused three children and faced 40 offences. The middle brother, Alman Miah, faced three sexual offence charges against one girl.

The girls abused by Amran Miah and Joman Miah were as young as six or seven when the abuse began, and it lasted several years.

Preston Crown Court heard Joman Miah started a relationship with a 14-year-old, knowing she was under 16. He groomed her by giving her gifts, alcohol and cigarettes.

Around the same time, Alman Miah started a relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

During their relationship, the girl was raped by his brother Amran Miah, it was heard.

In late 2009, the 15-year-old victim was threatened by Amran Miah after speaking to the police. She was grabbed off the street by her hair and shoved in the back of a car by a man, prosecutors said.

Amran Miah was in the passenger seat. The man who grabbed her asked her what she had said to the police and told her “she would be dead” if she had told them anything.

Amran Miah told her she did not know what he was capable of and that he would do anything to protect his family.

He also made threats to a woman who was due to be interviewed by the police in 2010 in relation to the brothers. Due to the threats, that interview never took place.

All three men pleaded not guilty to the charges they faced but were convicted on October 28 following a lengthy trial at Preston Crown Court.

They will be sentenced on February 21 2025.

Derek Artis, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West’s rape and serious sexual offence unit, said: “Shaha Amran Miah, Shaha Alman Miah and Shaha Joman Miah groomed and exploited the girls in this case with no concern for them or the impact that such dreadful abuse from a young age would have on their lives. The CPS worked with Cumbria Police to build a strong case to put before the jury, including eye-witness testimony and extensive phone evidence. The strength of the evidence was such that the jury found the men guilty…”

Perhaps when Cumbria Police said, back in 2020 when the allegations of Ellie Williams  were exercising public concern, that

“If asked, is there an organisation of Asian men in Barrow conducting abuse or sexual exploitation against individuals our investigation has shown that has not been corroborated.”

they regarded a family as not “an organisation”.  Who knows. Their trial was supposed to start in September 2022, some weeks before the trial of Ellie Williams. It didn’t. It eventually started in September 2023, some months after Ellie was convicted of Perverting the Course of Justice for her false claims.  Then stopped for reasons never made public, then relisted this September, mentioned in the local newspaper once, then placed under the reporting restrictions I mentioned above.  While many of Ellie Williams allegation were obvious, blatently stupid and wrongful lies this case does show that all was not sweetness and light on the streets of Barrow and parents and public were right to be worried. 

I’ll put the date of sentencing in my diary for the new year. 

• Shaha Amran Miah, DoB 12/01/1976, of Leeds, was found guilty of Indecent Assault x7, Indecency with a Child x7, Rape of child x1, Kidnapping x1, Intimidation x2, Sexual Assault x1
• Shaha Alman Miah, DoB 29/07/1977, of Leeds, was found guilty of Sexual Activity with a Child x3
• Shaha Joman Miah, DoB 22/06/1986, of Doncaster, was found guilty of Indecent Assault x8, Indecency with child x4, Sexual Activity with a Child x3, Causing a Child to Engage in Sexual Activity x5, Rape of child x9, Sexual Assault of a Child x6, Sexual Activity with Child x5.