An alleged ringleader of a 13-man gang who reportedly raped a 13-year-old schoolgirl in Yorkshire is believed to have fled the UK to Bangladesh before being sentenced.
Arif Chowdhury, 20, allegedly left for Dhaka during the investigation after he was arrested in 2012 in connection to the raping of the schoolgirl, Bradford crown court heard last year.
He is also accused of pimping her out to his contacts in Keighley when he was just 15, reported The Guardian.
The report also claimed that Bangladesh has never extradited anyone to the UK, leaving West Yorkshire police with an uphill battle to find Arif.
Barrister Louise Blackwell QC, has been at the bar for over 25 years, described Arif, a convicted drug dealer, as being 'evil' and violent.
Suspected paedophile Arif Chowdhury, 20, allegedly left for Bangladesh during the investigation after he was arrested in 2012 in connection to the raping of a 13-year-old schoolgirl
A jury heard how he first raped the girl, who cannot be named, behind a church when he was 15.
He had previously got to know her when she was 13 after persuading her to do drug runs in Keighley.
She had attempted to stop helping the drugdealer, revealing to police how he had racially abused her and then raped her.
Arif also subjected her to regular beatings and made her have sex with other men in a year-long ordeal.
He allegedly brought her to an underground car park to meet four teenage friends of him before they raped her.
She was also raped by 12 others persons, who had close connection with Arif. Of them, five rapists--Nazir, 24, Faisal Khan, 27, Saqib Younis, 29, Zain Ali, 20, and Hussain Sardar, 19--were found guilty of raping the schoolgirl on a single afternoon in 2012.
Nazir and Faisal are borthers while the rest are their cousins.
Besides, Sufyan and Bilal Ziarab, who are also brothers, were both convicted of two counts of rape along with Yasser Kabir, 25, and his 23-year-old half-brother Tauqeer Hussain.
Mohammed Akram, a taxi driver, also admitted to having sex with the girl.
The prosecution described the girl, who was 14 at the time, as being “easy prey” to Akram, who was 59 when he had sex with her in his taxi.
Another man, Israr Ali, 19, forced the girl to perform oral sex and when she refused him, he threatened to call Arif, she revealed to the police. Israr Ali was also found guilty of rape.
One last man, Khalid Mahmood, 34, pleaded guilty to five counts of rape on the day the trial was about to start. He gave the girl cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol before raping her in Cliff Castle Park in Keighley.
When the trial started he was already serving an eight-year sentence after being found guilty of raping a 43-year-old woman in a park.
He was also found guilty of attempted false imprisonment after trying to grab a child off the street.
When they were being sent into custody, the Judge, Mr Justice Thomas QC, commented on the men's attitude during the proceedings, criticising their contempt and arrogance.
“In 40 years of practice, I have never seen a dock that has been as insolent and disrespectful as this one,” Mr Justice Thomas QC said.
The men laughed and made comments towards female journalists during the trial. The men will be sentenced on Monday.
The court heard the victim, who is now 18, started out a happy and “sensible” child but changed when she started high school in Keighley. She suffered from low self-esteem and had very few friends.
By the time she was taken into care in June 2012, her mother and grandmother had reported her missing from home 71 times. Identified as vulnerable by teachers and social workers, she spent more time at a local youth mentoring programme than she did at school, she told detectives.
She was first visited by police in April 2011 and warned about the dangers of associating with older men who might buy her presents in return for sexual favours. In January 2012 she was referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Bradford council by a pastoral support worker at her school.
She was desperate for love and attention, the jury was told, and she “lacked the wherewithal to extricate herself” from dangerous situations “given her longing to belong”. Michelle Colborne QC, prosecuting, said: “She was being exploited and was out of her depth but was too naive to do anything about it.”
