Huddersfield grooming gang

The Huddersfield grooming gang was a group of men who were convicted of sexual offences against girls in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.  It was the largest gang ever convicted for sex abuse in the United Kingdom.  The offences took place between 2004 and 2011, and the men were charged following the Operation Tendersea inquiry by the police.  The trials began in April 2017 and 20 men were convicted in 2018 in three separate trials.  Since then, further men have been convicted in a series of trials, bringing the total number of men convicted to 34 by February 2020. 

At one of the trials, the founder of English Defence League Tommy Robinson filmed the defendants and received a 13-month jail sentence for contempt of court in May 2018, later overturned, and was given a nine-month sentence in July 2019 in a retrial. 

A report released in June 2019 indicated that 15 of the 22 females involved were known to children's services.  Although there was "sufficient evidence" that two girls were being sexually exploited, one as early as 2007, no action were taken by the Kirklees Children's Services. 

Trials
27 men were accused of sexual offences including rape and trafficking against 18 girls aged between 11 and 17, with two further women accused of child neglect.  Due to the large number of defendants, the court proceedings against them were conducted in three separate trials.  Reporting restrictions on the trial were imposed in November 2017 under the 1981 Contempt of Court Act to avoid prejudice on subsequent trials. 

However, the restrictions on reporting was criticised by the far right, who claimed that it was a cover-up as its perpetrators were "Asian" and "Muslims", and that it amounted to "state censorship".  Far right activist Tommy Robinson streamed video from outside the court on Facebook during the second of the trials, filmed some of the accused and talked about Muslims and "jihad rape gangs", which led to his arrest and prosecution.  He received a 13-month jail sentence for contempt of court in May 2018, but was released in August 2018 after he won his challenge against the ruling in the Court of Appeal.   The case was referred to the attorney general, and Robinson was given a nine-month sentence in July 2019 in a retrial. 

20 men were convicted of rape and abuse against 15 girls in October of 2018.  The men were convicted of more than 120 offences against 15 girls, and jailed for a total of 221 years.  Reporting restrictions on the trials were partially lifted in October 2018.   16 of the gang were sentenced in October 2018, the remaining four were sentenced in November 2018.   One of the convicted gang members, Faisal Nadeem, appealed against the sentence arguing that Robinson's live video had prejudiced the trial, but his permission to appeal was refused by a Court of Appeal judge. 

Six separate trials had been held by February 2020, with 34 men convicted in total. 

Perpetrators
The first 20 men convicted are all of Asian – mainly Pakistani – origin.  Their ringleader was Amere Singh Dhaliwal, a British Indian, who converted to Sikhism in 2013.  One of the grooming gang members, Sajid Hussain, fled during the trial and was sentenced in his absence. 

Two more men were sentenced in June 2019.  Mohammed Akram was previously convicted and had his sentenced increased whilst Usman Khalid was sentenced to five years. 

A further five men were jailed in November 2019 under Operaton Tendersea.  Three of the men were not named for legal reasons whilst Umar Zaman fled to Pakistan and was sentenced in his absence. 

Seven more men were convicted in February 2020. 

Controversy over remarks by Sajid Javid
After the reporting restrictions were lifted, the Conservative Home Secretary Sajid Javid sent out a tweet stating: "These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice.  I want to commend the bravery of the victims.  For too long, they were ignored.  Not on my watch.  There will be no no-go areas."  His referencing of the ethnic heritage of the offenders was strongly condemned by senior Labour politicians Diane Abbott, Sadiq Khan and David Lammy, who alleged that he was seeking “to pin the blame on [...] one group” and pandering to the toxic racist agenda of the far right.  In a later interview with Sky News, Javid accused his critics of being "oversensitive" and refused to apologize or withdraw his comment, saying: "When I made that comment I was stating the facts, and the sad truth is that if you look at recent high-profile convictions of gang-based child sexual exploitation there is a majority of people that come from Pakistani heritage backgrounds - that's plain for everyone to see." 

See also
List of sexual abuses perpetrated by groups

References

Category:2004 crimes in the United Kingdom
Category:2000s crimes in the United Kingdom
Category:2000s in West Yorkshire
Category:2010s crimes in the United Kingdom
Category:2010s in West Yorkshire
Category:2010s trials
Category:British people convicted of child sexual abuse
Category:Crime in West Yorkshire
Grooming gang
Category:Rape in the 2000s
Category:Rape in the 2010s
Category:Rape in Yorkshire
Category:Sex crime trials
Category:Sex crimes in England
Category:Sex gangs
Category:Pakistani-British gangs
Category:Trials in England