Aylesbury child sex abuse trial: Men jailed for abusing schoolgirls

Image copyrightThames Valley

Image captionClockwise from top left: Vikram Singh, Akbari Khan, Asif Hussain, Mohammed Imran, Taimoor Khan and Arshad Jani were all found guilty

Six men involved in a child sex ring in Buckinghamshire have been jailed for abusing two schoolgirls on a "massive scale".

The Old Bailey heard the abuse in Aylesbury went on for years and involved offences including rape and child prostitution.

The men, from Aylesbury, Milton Keynes and Bradford, were said to have carried out the attacks between 2006 and 2012.

The abusers were sentenced at the Old Bailey.

The jailed men are:

• Vikram Singh, 46, of Cannock Road, Aylesbury, jailed for 17-and-a-half years after being found guilty of four counts of rape and administering a substance with intent
• Asif Hussain, 33, of Hodge Lea, Milton Keynes, jailed for 13-and-a-half years after being convicted of three counts of rape
• Arshad Jani, 33, of Cousins Drive, Aylesbury, sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of rape and conspiracy to rape
• Mohammed Imran, 38, of Springcliffe Street, Bradford, sentenced to 19-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of three counts of rape, one count of conspiracy to rape and one count of child prostitution
• Akbari Khan, 36, of Mandeville Road, Aylesbury, sentenced to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of rape, administering a substance with intent and conspiracy to rape
• Taimoor Khan, 29, of Highbridge Road, Aylesbury, jailed for three years after being convicted of one count of sexual activity with a child

The offences, which all the defendants denied any involvement in, took place in cars, vans, flats and sometimes the girls' homes in Aylesbury, their trial heard.

Eleven defendants in total faced trial. Four were cleared of any wrongdoing, while the jury could not reach a verdict on one of the men.

Legal action

The court heard evidence from both victims, who came from troubled backgrounds and were befriended by the men who gave them alcohol, DVDs, food and occasionally drugs.

When she was 12 or 13, one of the girls - known as A - was passed between 60 Asian men for sex and had been conditioned to think it was normal behaviour, the jury was told.

The girls started to believe the men, some of whom were married with children, were their boyfriends.

Image captionRepeatedly excluded from school, Child A spent a lot of her time around Aylesbury Market

In a statement, the second girl - known as B - said today's sentencing was "academic" because "no sentence could ever put right what happened".

"However, what today does present is an opportunity for me and others like me," she said.

"It's an opportunity for all of us to say to the government and to social services, whose job it is to protect vulnerable people, that it is time to sit down and listen to our experiences, and I mean actually listen and reflect on what is happening in this country."

Alan Collins, solicitor for girl B, said they would be taking legal action against Buckinghamshire County Council for its "negligence" which "resulted in the unnecessary suffering of these victims."