Rochdale: Five victims, 23 offences, 28 years behind bars

Not the on-going trial of eight defendants at the Crown Court at Minshull Street Manchester. This man was convicted in December and sentenced yesterday. He seems to have been tried alone and not as a member of a gang; but the MO was the same. From the Manchester Evening News and Greater Manchester Police

A ‘callous and prolific’ rapist subjected girls to a catalogue of ‘horrific’ abuse. Ajaz Ahmed, 56, used a café he ran – and his home in Rochdale town centre – as bases to groom and attack underage girls over a number of years.

He would ply them with alcohol and used offers of jobs and accommodation in a bid to exert control over them. He has now been jailed for 28 years after being convicted of 23 offences, including rape and sexual assault.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said it was the coming forward of a brave survivor which ‘opened up the entire case’ and helped detectives uncover the full extent Ahmed’s abhorrent crimes.

The girl told officers in the mid-2010s she had been raped by several men at a party at a flat in the town. She was under 16 at the time. She was driven around by officers and pinpointed a house on Drake Street as the location of the attack.

Ahmed was identified as the owner of the building. Following that revelation, another girl said she had been beaten, raped and sexually assaulted on ‘multiple occasions’ during a ‘coercive and controlling relationship’.

Ahmed is said to have lied about his age, and claimed to be 27. The abuse spanned several years, GMP said.

A friend of the first victim said she was sexually assaulted when she was under 16. A fourth victim came forward, telling police she met Ahmed at his café. He offered somewhere to live in exchange for work.

After a few weeks, he sexually assaulted her in the kitchen. .., one occasion, raped her in the basement of the Drake Street property. He threatened to kick her out and make her homeless if she tried to stop him.

Another victim was offered a room at the Drake Street house by Ahmed, who she knew as ‘AJ’. One night he let himself in and raped her in front of a group of laughing men. He then began to regularly rape her.

A fifth victim said she was offered a place to stay by Ahmed in return for sexual favours. When she declined, he sexually assaulted her.

He was found guilty of ten counts of rape, seven counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child, ABH, non-penetrative sexual activity with a child, two counts of assault by penetration, indecent image of a child, and extreme pornography. He has been sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.