'Monster' who raped 13-year-old girl and woman in Rotherham jailed for 20 years
A “monster” who raped a 13-year-old girl who had been “passed on from one man to another” from the age of 11 in Rotherham has been jailed for 20 years.
Father-of-three Riyasth Hussain, 45, was confronted at Sheffield Crown Court by the woman, now in her 30s, who told him from the witness box: “You didn’t just steal my childhood, you stole the rest of my life.”
The woman, who cannot be named, faced Hussain as she described how she had been abused from the age of 11 by men in Rotherham and outlined how he would rape her “at any opportunity” and then “chuck me away like I was nothing”.
She looked straight him as he sat in the dock, saying: “When you met me, I was just a fragile, vulnerable little girl who you could easily abuse.
“Today I’m a woman and my only goal is justice. Today I got justice. I’m happy to take you down at last.”
In her victim impact statement, the woman described the long-lasting effect of Hussain’s attack on her.
She said: “My thoughts freeze whenever I think of his name. I try not to think of him at all, but that never happens, he comes into my mind every day, this is out of my control.
“I can’t concentrate on my day or my thoughts and I am constantly distracted with the living nightmare of what he did to me. My mind takes me back to when he was controlling me and the horrible things he did to me. I feel so scared, even now.”
Hussain was sentenced on Thursday (Feb 19) for raping the girl and also a woman who was then in her 20s, between 2004 and 2008.
Hussain was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for this offence, to run concurrently to his other sentences - meaning he will serve a total of 20 years in prison.
The second woman said in a statement read to the court: “I cannot ever forgive this monster for what he’s done to me. I will hate him to the day I die. He has completely ruined my life.”
Sentencing Hussain, Judge Sarah Wright told the court she wanted to pay tribute to the courage of the two women.
She told Hussain that the women who was about 13 at the time of the rapes was “passed on from one man to another” to the extent that “she believed this sort of behaviour was normal, and you exploited that”.
The judge said: “Their lives are affected forever. The harm you have caused cannot and never will be repaired.”
She said: “For many years they have not been heard. They have had no voice.”
But she added that they have “shown incalculable courage” in making sure their voices have now been heard.
Following the sentencing, NCA Senior Investigating Officer Alan Hastings said: “Today, two survivors described with humbling eloquence and dignity the great suffering that they have experienced every day since Riyasth Hussain raped them.
“Despite the profoundly traumatic impact of Hussain’s crimes, both women remained determined to support the investigation. It is thanks to the victims’ evidence and the extensive work of our specialist Operation Stovewood investigators to corroborate that evidence, that Hussain has at last faced justice.
“I want all victims of child sexual abuse to know that, when they are ready, there are support services and specially trained officers ready and waiting to help them.”