A man who has been charged with 13 offences including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl as part of the investigations into grooming gangs in Rochdale in the UK, has absconded to Dublin, a court has been told.
Tahir Rashid is one of 11 men accused of historical sexual abuse against teenage girls in Rochdale, with a combined 103 charges relating to alleged offences against three girls between 2000 and 2006.
The BBC reports that “according to legal documents, there was growing evidence from the early 2000s that gangs of predominantly Asian men were grooming, trafficking and sexually abusing mostly white working-class girls in the town”.
Girls aged between 13 and 15 were trafficked, prostituted, raped and assaulted by the gangs. Police later apologised to some of the girls involved who said that they were not believed and were sometimes arrested themselves instead of being viewed as child victims of sex abuse.
Grooming gangs operated almost with impunity over a period in towns across north England. A report published by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014 concluded that more than 1,400 children had been raped, beaten and sexually abused by gangs of paedophiles in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani heritage, operated in towns like Rochdale and Rotherham with the police and local authorities “failing to address the problem for fear of being labelled racist”, the Telegraph reported.
The Greater Manchester Police force announced this week that 11 men were being charged in connection with Operation Lytton, the ongoing investigation into historic sex offences against children.
Rashid was due to appear with 10 other men at Manchester and Salford magistrates court on Wednesday. But the court heard he boarded a a 5.50am flight to Dublin on April 30th.
District Judge Mitchell issued a warrant for the arrest of Rashid.
The 10 other men were bailed on condition they surrender passports within 24 hours, lived and slept at their home address between 7pm and 7am each day, did not travel outside the UK or apply for travel documents, signed on once a week at their local police station, did not contact witnesses, co-accused and complainants, and had no unsupervised contact with anyone aged under 18 without prior risk assessment by social services, except for their own children.
Police said the 11 defendants are:
- Tahir Rashid, 52, of Rochdale, charged with 13 offences, including rape and penetrative sexual activity with an underage girl
- Mohammad Salim, 44, of Rochdale, charged with eight offences, including rape and sexual activity with an underage girl
- Suklene Shah, 44, of Rochdale, charged with two counts of sexual activity with an underage girl
- Mohammed Shazad, 42, of Rochdale, charged with 16 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation, and sexual activity with an underage girl
- Nisar Hussain, 39, of Rochdale, charged with three offences, including making indecent images of a child and trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation
- Naheem Akram, 46, of Rochdale, charged with 10 offences, including rape and sexual activity with an underage girl
- Mohammed Zahid, 63, of Crumpsall, charged with 32 offences, including rape, trafficking persons within the UK for sexual exploitation, sexual activity with an underage girl, gross indecency with an underage girl, procuring an underage girl to have unlawful sexual intercourse with unknown males
- Roheez Khan, 37, of Rochdale, charged with three offences, including rape and sexual activity with an underage girl
- Arfan Khan, 39, of Rochdale, charged with four offences, including rape and sexual activity with an underage girl
- Mustaq Ahmed, 65, of Oldham, charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl
- Kasir Bashir, 48, of Oldham, charged with six offences, including rape and gross indecency with an underage girl
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