Rapist serving 19 years for Rotherham abuse handed another three-year term
A man who was jailed for 19 years for subjecting a girl to a “campaign of violent rape” in Rotherham has been given a further three-year sentence after he was found guilty of raping another vulnerable teenager in the town.
Sageer Hussain, 40, was found guilty of rape at Sheffield Crown Court earlier this year following a trial which heard how he targeted his victim 25 years ago when she was about 13 years old.
Hussain was already serving a lengthy sentence after he was jailed for 19 years in 2016 for raping a 13-year-old girl in the South Yorkshire town.
On Tuesday, he was jailed for three years by Judge Charles Thomas.
Judge Thomas told Hussain: “The sad fact of this case is that, despite her young age at the time, you were not the first man to have abused and exploited (the complainant) in this area and around this time.”
The judge told the court that the new sentence will start immediately.
He said Hussain is nearing the end of the custodial element of his 19-year sentence and the two terms will therefore overlap.
Earlier this year, a jury heard how the girl whom Hussain raped some time between July 2000 and July 2002 is now in her 30s.
Hussain, who was about two years older than her, led her down an alleyway in Rotherham town centre and said he would not let her back out unless she had sex with him.
Prosecutors told the jury how Hussain raped her with two other people present, one female and one male.
They said she cried throughout the ordeal as her exit was blocked.
The complainant watched Hussain being sentenced in court on Tuesday and was thanked by Judge Thomas for how she had conducted herself during the court proceedings.
Hussain was jailed in 2016 alongside seven other men by the same judge who had previously sentenced his brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras to 35, 25, and 19 years in prison respectively.
The judge in 2016 heard how Hussain’s victim had complained to police in 2003 but the inquiry was dropped, partly because she was so terrified of her abusers.
She told the eight men: “She was targeted, sexualised and subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature.”
On Tuesday, Judge Thomas referenced Hussain’s three older brothers’ convictions, saying the defendant had “no good role models”.
The judge also accepted the defendant was only a teenager himself at the time, but said to him: “You had a choice and you knew what you were doing, and you knew it was wrong.”
Judge Thomas said that, from the age of 13, the girl would spend time in Rotherham town centre with “Asian men and other young girls”, and would be given alcohol.
He said it was “clearly not uncommon for sexual activity to take place between the girls and the Asian men who would congregate in that area”.
The judge said the complainant’s victim personal statement outlined the “devastating effect” of the abuse she suffered at the hands of these men, which has affected “every aspect of her life”.
Hussain’s sentencing is the latest to arise out of the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, which is the huge investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
The NCA says Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement operation of its kind in the UK and has identified more than 1,100 children involved in the exploitation.
To date, 49 people have been convicted following Stovewood investigations, the NCA said.
NCA senior investigating officer Alan Hastings said: “The victim has shown enormous strength and fortitude in reporting what Sageer Hussain did to her.
“The woman bravely told officers about Hussain’s horrific crime against her, and that significantly helped our investigation.
“Officers subsequently identified corroborating evidence that enabled us to secure justice for the woman.
“Hussain, who is already serving time for raping another girl, will now remain in prison for longer.”