Last two men sentenced in Calderdale's biggest child sex abuse case

The sentences conclude a four year investigation by West Yorkshire police into the systematic abuse of the teenager when she was aged 13 to 15.

Sentences imposed on the sexual offenders now total more than 175 years and an 18th man convicted only of supplying the girl with cannabis was also jailed for 10 months.

Aesan Pervez, 27, from Halifax was today jailed for a total of four years. He was convicted by a jury after a trial at Leeds Crown Court on one charge of sexual assault on the girl and pleaded guilty to robbing a teenager of a phone and a charge of intimidation while he was on bail in May this year.

The jury heard Pervez was at a house in Halifax where others were present including the girl who was then 14.

She had been drinking and supplied with cocaine by another person before Pervez began stroking her leg telling her how much he liked her.

While on bail on May 11 he went to the People’s Park in Halifax where two youths aged 15 and 16 had already been approached by two other men.

Nicholas Askins prosecuting said Pervez was in a group of four who joined them.

He then asked to see the 16-year-old’s mobile phone when he refused the youth was told to hand over his phone or he would end up in a body bag.

One of Pervez’s group threatened him with nunchuks, a martial arts weapon, while Pervez pulled the £600 phone from the pocket of his jogging bottoms.

The teenager was then asked for his PIN number and password. The offender with Pervez told the teenager he should give it to them or his family would never see him again. Because he was scared he did give them what they wanted but reported the incident at college and the police were called.

On May 17 the complainant and his friend were walking towards Halifax town centre while the victim was in a shop Pervez approached the friend and told him if they told the police “I’ll put you both in body bags”.

Simon Hustler representing Pervez said although she was considered vulnerable the schoolgirl in the trial had been able to rebuff his advances so his offending was not as serious as the many men who had full sex with her.

He said in addition he was not the person who instigated the robbery offence, nor was he the one was armed but he accepted it was “undoubtedly an unpleasant incident.”

The second man sentenced today was Furqaan Ghafar, 31, from Derby who was jailed for five years three months after he admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child.

Mr Askins said the schoolgirl’s father had found text messages on her phone containing sexually explicit details which were later traced back to Ghafar.

When she did eventually complain to the police about all the sexual abuse against her she said she had first met him in Bradford in 2011 and exchanged numbers with him.

A few days later he contacted her and he asked if she was “coming out to chill”. She took the train from Halifax to Bradford where he and another man picked her up and took her to a house.

He gave her £20 to buy some vodka to drink and she also smoked cannabis but nothing sexual happened on that day and she was taken back to the station.

However two weeks later she was again contacted by him and again was taken to the house in Bradford and Ghafar bought vodka in a shop.

Mr Askins told the court the schoolgirl slept with another man before smoking some cannabis and having unprotected sex with Ghafar.

Stephen Wood representing Ghafar said that had happened on only one occasion when he felt “genuine affection” for the girl and since then had not been in any further trouble.

Sentencing them Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said they must have been aware of the vulnerability of the schoolgirl who had suffered severe psychological effects having had sex with many men.

“Courts have a duty to protect vulnerable children even from themselves.”

He told Ghaffar: “When you committed this offences she was almost 16, by then it must have been obvious to anybody coming into contact with her that was deeply damaged and particularly vulnerable.”