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Sex offenders whose crimes robbed two Kirklees women of their childhoods have been jailed.
Kirklees safeguarding detectives have praised the bravery of the women whose courage in coming forwards resulted in the jailing of three men for multiple sexual offences, including rape.
Javaid Hussain, aged 51, Sarfraz Hussain Riaz, aged 42, and Mohammed Farook, aged 55, were all sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today ( Wednesday 20 May) for offences committed between 2002 and 2005.
Riaz, from Dewsbury, was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting an offence of rape against the same 16-year-old teenager.
The offence, which he admitted while on trial in February this year, took place in the Kirklees area in 2005.
Riaz, willl face the new sentence following a 15 year jail term which he is currently serving from a separate case.
The victim of Sarfraz Riaz and Javaid Hussain said her abuse had left her suffering with lifelong PTSD.
She said:
“On a daily basis, I am overwhelmed on a cycle of intense emotions: anger, shame and a deep sense of degradation. I often feel a profound sense of worthlessness and humiliation that makes it difficult to face the world. There is a constant underlying fear and a feeling of disbelief that this is my reality.
Accountability in court is necessary, but for me, the loss of my “true self” is a life sentence that I must continue to navigate every day for the sake of my family.
I have lived my whole life with self-blame for what you have done to me. You took the innocent part of my childhood.”
In a statement read to the court, Farook’s victim said the 55-year-old’s actions had taken something from her which she could never get back.
She said:
“Emotionally this has affected me throughout my life, I struggle to sleep and have re occurring nightmares. I have relived incidents in my sleep and woken up thinking it was real and was happening at the time. This still happens to this day and have certainly become more frequent and vivid since the court trial.
“My father has struggled with his own emotions after I finally spoke about what happened. It broke me to see my own father cry and see his own self guilt saying that he failed to protect his “little girl”.
DCI Rob Stevens of Kirklees Police, said:
“Much progress has been made in recent years in bringing criminals like Farooq, Hussain and Riaz to justice for their predatory offending against young girls in Kirklees.
“The victims in this case showed real courage in coming forwards to make these men answer for the huge and lasting damage they inflicted on them through these appalling crimes.
“As we can see from their court statements, the trauma they suffered stole their childhoods from them, and lasted through the course of their adult lives.
“We and colleagues at the CPS are determined to ensure time is no barrier to justice and the bravery of victims in reporting these offences ensures we are able to make these men answer for what they did.”
He added:
“We continue to urge all victims of sexual offending who may not have reported offences to come forwards, no matter when crimes took place. Specialist officers will always, listen, investigate and do whatever they can to secure justice for you."