LONDON: A UK court on Wednesday jailed seven “grooming gang” members for between 12 to 35 years for using two teenage girls as “sex slaves,” the latest sentences in a decades-long scandal.
The men, all of South Asian descent, groomed at least two vulnerable white teenage girls in Rochdale, near Manchester in northwest England, and then repeatedly raped them over a five-year period starting in 2001.
A jury hearing their four-month trial in Manchester found all seven guilty in June of rape and dozens of other offenses, after both victims gave evidence in court.
Jurors heard they were forced to have sex “with multiple men on the same day, in filthy flats and on rancid mattresses.”
“They were passed around for sex — abused, humiliated, degraded and then discarded,” judge Jonathan Seely said on passing sentence.
