Paedophile, 26, jailed for raping 13-year-old girl after plying her with drugs is already back on the streets after serving less than four years in jail

• Mohsin Khan, from Rotherham, jailed in 2010 for grooming girl, 13, for sex
• Gave girl cannabis, drove her around in his car and said they had a future 
• He is one of five British Pakistani men convicted of abusing Rotherham girls 
• Police facing questions about how they will catch 'hundreds of child rapists'
• A damning report says 1,400 girls were abused by Asian men in the town  

Strolling outside his Rotherham home, one of the few men convicted over the grooming scandal was free to walk the street last night.

Mohsin Khan, 26, has been released from prison less than four years after he was convicted of grooming a 13-year-old girl for sex.

He is now able to walk freely through the town where he and four accomplices sexually exploited teenage girls.

Scroll down for video 

+3

Free: Mohsin Khan walks the streets of Rotherham yesterday. He was given a four-year jail sentence for grooming a girl of 13, but has now been released 

Meanwhile his victim – and hundreds of others like her – are forced to live in fear. Many are forced to endure the fact that their abusers never faced justice as a result of shocking blunders by police and council workers.

His freedom last night became a symbol of the catastrophic failure to protect vulnerable girls in the town from abusers.

Now, police in Rotherham are facing searching questions about how they are going to catch the ‘hundreds of child rapists’ who are thought to be still at large.

 

More...

• As a true Guardian reader, and liberal leftie, I didn't want to rock the multi-cultural boat says former Rotherham Labour MP Denis MacShane as he insists no-one raised town's child sex abuse scandal with him
• 'I saved all my clothes I was raped in but the police lost them and said it was my word against his': Shocking claims of Rotherham sex abuse gang victim whose parents sent her abroad when authorities failed to protect her 
• Social workers knew the truth, but called ME a liar
• Even our police are blinded by liberal dogma, writes SIMON DANCZUK
• A raft of abuse files but crime tsar says he didn¿t see them: Shaun Wright is urged to quit by Labour as he continues to shift blame for the scandal
• We won't take the blame! 1,400 young girls abused, rapists still on the loose, but the officials in charge of the Rotherham abuse scandal still continue to pass the buck 
• 
  

The South Yorkshire force pledged to ‘relentlessly’ bring the sex predators to justice after a damning report exposed the abuse suffered by at least 1,400 girls at the hands of Asian men.

But serious concerns over its ability to conduct such complex investigations have been raised because of its appalling failures in such cases to date.

 A lawyer representing the victims said police had missed ‘clear opportunities’ to bring sex offenders to justice.

There has been only one successful prosecution, in 2010, for sexual offences by Asian men against Rotherham girls. This resulted in the conviction of five British-born Pakistani men – including Khan.

To outsiders, he lived a reputable, middle-class life.

+3

By the age of 20, he had secured a job as a mortgage advisor, owned two semi-detached houses and ran a cafe and several other businesses.

 But beneath the facade of respectability, Khan was living a life of depravity.

In 2008 he began grooming the 13-year-old girl for sex.

He gave her cannabis, drove her around in one of his two cars, and persuaded her that they had a future together.

His victim later told police that he spoiled her ‘like a princess’.

Despite being well aware of her tender age, he promised the child they would settle down together.

But when he had gained the girl’s trust, he went on to viciously assault her, raping her in the car he had first used to impress her.

+3

Rotherham grooming victim: 'Authorities knew for two years'

When his crime finally came to light, he told police he had only given her a lift.

He told officers: ‘She looked no more than ten or 11 years old – the same age as my little brother.

‘There’s no way I’d touch her.’

Khan received a jail sentence of four years and was placed on the sex offenders register. Last night, he was already out on the streets of his hometown.

By contrast, Khan’s victim, who had been abused by five different Asian men, said at the trial: ‘I don’t think I will ever be able to return to Rotherham and feel safe without looking over my shoulder.’

The 26-year-old gave the girl cannabis, drove her around in one of his two cars and promised her they had a future together 

David Greenwood of Switalskis Solicitors, who is representing 15 of the victims in a class action against the police, said yesterday:

‘South Yorkshire Police failed to act on information which could have led to the arrest of perpetrators.’

Simon Danczuk, the MP for Rochdale who exposed the Cyril Smith scandal, said urgent action was needed to catch the criminals who have committed ‘appalling child sex abuse on an industrial scale’.

‘There are many, many other perpetrators of this type of crime out there – hundreds of child rapists out there,’ he said. ‘What are South Yorkshire Police doing to catch these people?’ 

No police officer has yet been sacked or disciplined over the failures in Rotherham.

 The two chief constables at the helm during the height of the failings have since left on hefty pensions.

The devastating Rotherham report by Professor Alexis Jay revealed how officers from South Yorkshire Police treated victims with ‘contempt’.

They turned a blind eye to their plight and in many cases held them responsible. This included the case of an 11-year-old who was viewed by police as having ‘consensual sex’ with an adult man.