UK Grooming Gang Handed Total Jail Time of 221 Years for Abusing Girls

16:28 GMT, 19 October 2018

The high profile case has barely left the headlines over the past year, especially since former English Defence League Cheif, Tommy Robinson, was arrested for filming one of its trials. Now, after reporting restrictions have been lifted, the details become clearer for the first time.

Sputnik

Sixteen men have been jailed for a total of 221 years over forming a grooming gang that had sexually abused 15 girls in and around Huddersfield, England.

Three trials held at Leeds Crown Court this year heard how 15 victims were groomed and raped in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, between 2004 and 2011.

The victims were between the ages of 11 and 17 when, according to reports, they were "deliberately targeted" by the men. The girls were allegedly duped into relationships with them, and subsequently pumped with drugs and alcohol, then threatened with physical violence to keep quiet.

The convictions can now be reported on for the first time after the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl, lifted reporting restrictions that were in place on a number of trials related to grooming gangs in the area.

So far out of the 20 men convicted of offenses, including bodily harm and rape, 16 have been sent to prison and the last four are awaiting their sentencing.

Dhaliwal, a married farther-of-two, was reportedly told by Judge Geoffrey Marson, who handed down the sentence, that "the extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything which I have previously encountered."

"As cases of sexual abuse with which the courts have to deal, this case comes at the top of the scale. Children's lives have been ruined and families profoundly affected by seeing their children, over months and years, out of control, having been groomed by you and other members of your gang," he allegedly added.

In May 2018, the former leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, was arrested for streaming a Facebook live during one of the trials. He was subsequently jailed for contempt of court but the conviction was dropped. He now, however, faces a new hearing for the same alleged breach.