Greater Manchester PoliceA market stallholder who groomed and raped two girls in Rochdale felt he was “almost untouchable”, a sentencing hearing has heard.
Social services and police apologised for past failures concerning the victims – who were abused in the town between 2001 and 2006 – after the convictions of Mohammed Zahid, 65, and six other Asian men earlier this year for various child sex offences.
Gang leader Zahid, known as Boss Man, gave underwear from his lingerie stall at Rochdale Indoor Market to both teenagers, along with money, alcohol and food, for the expectation of sex with him and his friends.
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard testimony from those involved on day two of a three-day hearing.
One of his victims, Girl B, was living in a local children’s home when she was targeted by Zahid.
‘Authorities knew’
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told the court that father-of-three Zahid knew about Girl B being in the care system for “most of her young life”.
“It got to a stage where he was confident that nothing would be done about it and he would ring the care home and would also go there to pick her up and drop her off.
“Such was the brazen way he did this that by the end of the abuse he felt almost untouchable.”
Mr Scamardella KC added: “It’s not as if she had no-one to turn to. She turned to the care home. She turned to social services.
“She felt able to tell them at some stages, or other people did, and nothing was done. People knew, authorities knew. And nothing was done.”
Jurors at the trial were told that Girl B was labelled as a “prostitute” by Rochdale social services from the age of 10.
The hearing was also told that two 16-year-old girls made complaints in writing to the market stall manager that Zahid had given them free and discounted items, and made inappropriate sexual remarks.
Zahid asked one of the girl’s for her phone number and “looked her up and down”.
In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years in an earlier grooming gang case after he engaged in sexual activity in 2005 and 2006 with a 14-year-old girl who came to his stall to buy school tights.
He was one of many men who called her phone number “out of the blue” and went on to groom the “extremely vulnerable” teenager, the court heard.
Zahid, who came to the UK from his native Pakistan in 1978, continues to deny his offending.
‘Glimmer of hope’
His barrister, Lisa Wilding KC, argued Zahid’s 2016 conviction led to the breakdown of his marriage and family life.
“He is someone who potentially faces spending the rest of his life in prison.
“Clearly, you must pass a sentence that is just, proportionate and reflects the offending, but I would ask you to pass a sentence that perhaps allows him a glimmer of hope that at some stage he may be released.”
In June, Zahid, of Station Road, Crumpsall, was convicted of raping Girl A and Girl B, who did not know each other, on multiple occasions.
Jurors also found him guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.
He will be sentenced on Wednesday along with his co-defendants:
- Fellow market traders Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, and Kasir Bashir, 50, of Napier Street East, Oldham, were convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child, in relation to Girl B
- Taxi drivers Mohammed Shahzad, 44, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale; Naheem Akram, 49, of Manley Road, Rochdale; and Nisar Hussain, 41, of New Field Close, Rochdale, were convicted of multiple counts of rape against Girl A
- Roheez Khan, 39, of Athole Street, Rochdale, was found guilty of a single count of rape against Girl A
Bashir will be sentenced in his absence after he fled the UK while on bail before the trial started.