Special to the tribune
Two Bangla-origin men convicted of sex offences in UK
Shyam Bhatia in London

Two men from Manchester convicted of child-sex offences are the latest in a series of male abusers of mainly South Asian origin who have been caught grooming young white girls with drugs and alcohol before assaulting them.

Shamin Uddin, 26, was found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual activity with a child. His brother, Giash Uddin, 27, was found guilty of rape. Both men are of Bangladeshi origin. A third man who was part of their gang, 23-year-old Robert Jackson, a white man of Scottish origin, was also found guilty of rape.

During their trial prosecution, lawyers described how one of the girls was “simply passed around from one man to the other”, adding “the drink, drugs and promise of an exciting time with older men made for a potent cocktail that would overwhelm them.”

One of the girl victims explained during the trial how she and her young friends, aged 13 and upwards, met “different Asian guys” for entertainment.

“We’d go and sit in the park, then guys would pull up and talk to us or ask us for our [phone] numbers. They’d ask if we wanted to go to a party. They give you everything, like they don’t want anything from you. They weren’t bothered if you didn’t have any money. They would buy you nice things.”

The girl added: “One minute you’re dancing, the next you’re wobbling into the bedroom and falling down on the bed. Then you have your clothes off and you’re having sex, but you don’t even realise you’re having sex because you’re so out of it.

“You’d meet these guys and you don’t know whether you’ve had sex with them. They know, but you don’t. It’s going to stay with me forever. How they do it. How they treat you. The way they touch you and the way they talk to you.”

The Uddin brothers’ conviction has attracted nationwide attention because it is the latest in a series of high-profile cases, all involving mainly South Asian and Pakistani-origin abusers.

Last month, a paedophile gang of seven men from Oxford, largely of Pakistani origin, were given life sentences for abusing young white girls.

Earlier, in March two men from Bradford, Shazad Rehman and Bilal Hussain, both of Pakistani origin, were found guilty of drugging, raping and sexually abusing young white girls in hotel rooms.

These and other cases have led to the creation of the ‘Together Against Grooming’ (TAG) project, led and supported by members of the British Asian Muslim community, to fight the sexual exploitation of children.

A spokesman for TAG says the aim is to raise awareness of the “street” or “localised” grooming model of sexual exploitation “in response to a number of recent cases where the perpetrators have been mainly from an Asian/Muslim background.

But the spokesman added: “We fundamentally disagree with some racist extremist groups … who are exploiting this situation to denigrate Muslims and Islam by suggesting that there might be a religious and/or cultural explanation for the action of these men.

Last month, the TAG arranged for 500 British mosques to read out a sermon condemning child-grooming. Written by an imam from Bradford, part of the text of the sermon read: “Islam is a religion of mercy and compassion and places a strong obligation on safeguarding and protecting the weak and vulnerable from abuse, particularly women and children.

“As Muslims, we are commanded to be just, fair and shun evil, wrongdoing and all forms of indecent and immoral behaviour. Failure to remember and act on this results in the society that we are part of declining in social and moral terms.”