LONDON – A UK court has sentenced Pakistani-origin ringleader Muhammad Zahid, 65, to 35 years in prison for orchestrating one of Britain’s most notorious child grooming cases.
The verdict, delivered after a lengthy trial, found Zahid and six accomplices guilty of repeatedly abusing two underage girls between 2001 and 2006 in western England. The victims, now in their 30s, testified that they were manipulated with gifts, money, alcohol, and drugs before being subjected to years of sexual exploitation.
Other convicted men include Qaiser Bashir (29 years), Mushtaq Ahmad (27 years), Muhammad Shehzad (26 years), Naeem Akram (26 years), Nisar Hussain (19 years), and Roheez Khan (12 years).
The victims said they were exploited in flats, cars, warehouses, and other isolated locations, often forced into encounters with multiple men. Unable to even count the assaults, one survivor told the court it happened “hundreds of times” over five years.
The case has reignited debate in the UK about child protection, grooming networks, and the failures that allowed such abuse to persist for so long.
