Description
This is the predatory pimp who was 'at the heart' of the horrific toll of abuse against young girls in Huddersfield.
Described by Judge Geoffrey Marson QC as 'one of the leaders' of the grooming gang, Amere Singh Dhaliwal was convicted of 54 offences against 11 girls.
He sexually abused some of the girls countless times and sometimes he passed them on to other men in the grooming gang.
Manipulative Dhaliwal would also video the other men abusing the girls and send it to others and on one occasion he took indecent photos of an infant.
Labelling him a prolific sex offender who was at the 'very heart' of the grooming gang, prosecutor Richard Wright QC said: "He targeted vulnerable girls, he showered them with attention and plied them with drink and drugs.
"Having manipulated and moulded them in that way, he used them for his own sexual pleasure and effectively pimped them out to other men at organised parties where sex with young girls was the order of the day."
But he refused to ever admit he was involved in the grooming scandal, instead claiming the girls were liars and had targeted him all because he called one of them fat.
How he controlled the girls
His abuse may have begun in 2004 with a 13 or 14-year-old girl - who is referred to as Girl A. But she believes Dhaliwal, who at the time was in his early twenties and was better known by his nickname Pretos, was already abusing other underage girls before she came along.
The mechanic, along with Zahid Hassan and another man, first approached her and her friends in Huddersfield bus station as they were on their way to school. She was 13 or 14 years old and the girls she was with were even younger than her. The men offered them cigarettes and told them to skip school to get drunk with them.
They didn't truant, but they exchanged numbers.
She said they kept phoning her and turning up outside her school. There was no getting away from them, she said.
Within weeks, she was being forced to engage in sexual acts with the men.
The first time Dhaliwal raped her orally was in the car park of the now-defunct Shaf's snooker club on Manchester Road and she was scared of him. He made her feel ashamed of herself, she said.
And she said that after the first time he raped her vaginally, which happened in a house, he told everyone including a girl who claimed to be his girlfriend that she had raped him . She also said that after ejaculating inside her, he forced her to get the morning after pill and he got his girlfriend and her friends to beat her up, leaving her with black eyes and a broken nose.
He went on to rape her countless times, including in the toilets of the snooker club and at Blackmoorfoot Reservoir, before starting to pass her around his friends.
During 'games' of truth or dare, the child rapist dared Zahid Hassan and Mohammed Kammer to have sex with her. He would also dare her to perform oral sex on him and, during one such game, he put the end of a bottle in her vagina.
On one occasion at the snooker club, he told Girl A to have sex with Nasarat Hussain, who at the time was a teenager a few years older than her. She was wearing her school uniform and Hussain took her down to the canal near the snooker club. He threatened that if she didnt have sex with him he would tell Dhaliwal on her and so, out of fear of reprisals, she complied.
Girl A introduced him to Girl B, who was used mainly for oral sex. The pattern was similar he used her, then he passed her around.
After getting Girl B to perform oral sex on him at the snooker club, Dhaliwal would drive her to places such as Scammonden Dam where another man was waiting and a takeaway in Normanton where Mohammed Rizwan Aslam was waiting.
And through Girl A, at least five further girls were brought into the ring - girls B, D, H, I, M and O. Girls I and H in turn introduced Girl J to Dhaliwal and his friends.
Meanwhile, Dhaliwal's friend and cannabis dealer, Irfan Ahmed, targeted Girl C, who in turn brought Girl G into the ring and the Hassan brothers brought in girls F and N.
And Dhaliwal also set his sights on a girl who was living in a childrens home in Huddersfield Girl K.
The denial and the trial
He faced the highest amount of charges of all the group a whopping 57, of which he was convicted of all but three. He was found guilty of: 21 counts of rape, three of which were of a child under 13; 13 counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation; five counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; three counts of sexual assault; three counts of supplying a controlled drug of Class A; three counts of possessing an indecent image of a child; two counts of administering a substance with intent; one count of inciting child prostitution; one count of assault by penetration and; one count of racially aggravated assault.
The now-married dad, who converted to Sikhism in 2013, denied every charge and even knowing some of his victims.
He claimed that the only time he took Girl A up to the moors was to 'admire the scenery'.
And he also claimed that she 'fabricated' the case because she used to mouth off at him when she saw him in the street and he used to call her fat in return so she had 'a grudge or whatever' against him ever since.
During cross-examination, which took place after his 11 victims had bravely stood up in the witness box and gave detailed evidence about him, he continued to deny being sexually involved with them.
As he stood in the witness box, Mr Wright said to him sarcastically: "The worst thing you've ever done is describe her as being fat and, over a decade later, she has organised over 10 girls to come forward and fabricate over 70 allegations of terrible sexual offending. . .to have her revenge because you called her fat 12 years ago?"
After pointing out that his co-defendants would have to be in on the 'conspiracy' because they had admitted some details about his offending, Mr Wright asked: "Mr Dhaliwal, there is no conspiracy against you, is there? These girls have came here to tell the truth."
He replied: "I would suggest they are lying."
Mr Wright told him:
There is one liar here and that is Amere Singh Dhaliwal.
He interrupted: "No, that is not the truth."
Mr Wright continued: "And you have not got the guts to face up to what you did to them years ago."
But he maintained: "I have never sexually abused these girls."
Locked up for life
The probation service's report stated that he exerted 'power and control over young girls' and described him as 'manipulative' and 'predatory'.
The judge heard how, even after the 100-day trial in which a jury convicted him, Dhaliwal was still refusing to take responsibility for his actions.
Based on that and the amount of his offending, he was able to jail him for life with a minimum of 17 years and 312 days.
Sentencing, the judge told him: "Your treatment of these girls was inhuman, you treated them as commodities to be passed around for your own sexual gratification and the gratification of others.
"The extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything which I have previously encountered."
The now-35-year-old, who initially gave a bail address of Holly Road, Thornton Lodge, but later gave the court an address of Everard Street, Crosland Moor, is serving his sentence in HMP Doncaster in South Yorkshire. He will not be eligible to apply for release from prison until April 14, 2036 when he will be 53 years old. Even if he is released then, he will remain on licence for the remainder of his life.