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Keighley rape trial: Bilal Hussain and Shazad Rehman jailed | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Two men have been jailed for drugging and raping vulnerable under-age girls they found walking the streets. | |
Shazad Rehman, 30, was jailed for 18-and-half years and Bilal Hussain, 23, was jailed for 17-and-a-half years at Bradford Crown Court. | |
Judge Jonathan Rose said the men "engaged in a course of conduct which has become increasingly and depressingly familiar in this country". | |
Hussain, of Leeds and Rehman, of no fixed address, raped three girls. | |
'Fresh meat' | 'Fresh meat' |
The pair repeatedly raped one girl and also raped two other victims they picked up in the Keighley area of West Yorkshire. | |
The pair had denied nine rape charges but the jury found them guilty after two days of deliberation. | |
The court heard Rehman and Hussain plied the girls with alcohol and cannabis and took them to hotels for sex. | |
Rehman referred to the girls as "fresh meat", the court heard. | |
Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC had told the court: ''They acted together travelling from their various home addresses in Leeds and Halifax to the Keighley town centre where they specifically targeted vulnerable girls, all under-age." | Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC had told the court: ''They acted together travelling from their various home addresses in Leeds and Halifax to the Keighley town centre where they specifically targeted vulnerable girls, all under-age." |
She said some of the girls had difficult backgrounds or were emotionally fragile. | |
''They were out of their depth,'' the jury was told. | ''They were out of their depth,'' the jury was told. |
''They were supplied with strong alcohol and cannabis, enticed to believe they would have fun, that they were special. | ''They were supplied with strong alcohol and cannabis, enticed to believe they would have fun, that they were special. |
"In truth what was on offer was beyond their control." | "In truth what was on offer was beyond their control." |
Ms Colborne had told the court the defendants "exploited the girls' lack of maturity, their lack of life experience". | |
'Keep them forever' | |
Jurors heard drink and drugs were given to the girls to lessen their inhibitions, or in some cases to leave them incapable of resisting sexual advances. | |
Some of the rapes took place at the Alder House Hotel, Batley, and the Campanile Hotel in Bradford, after the complainants had been picked up by the defendants in a silver Audi, the court was told. | |
After one of the girls told Hussain she thought she was pregnant, he said she had to terminate the pregnancy or he would kill the baby himself. | After one of the girls told Hussain she thought she was pregnant, he said she had to terminate the pregnancy or he would kill the baby himself. |
Ms Colborne said Rehman had boasted to a woman they could get any girl they wanted. | Ms Colborne said Rehman had boasted to a woman they could get any girl they wanted. |
''He said they had no reputation and if they got them young enough they could keep them forever,'' she told the court. | ''He said they had no reputation and if they got them young enough they could keep them forever,'' she told the court. |
Both men were also convicted of supplying cannabis and a charge of conspiring to intimidate a witness. | |