11-13-2013, 10:19 PM
[img]i.guim.co.uk/thumb/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/8/1383922785123/Freddie-Kendakumana-91112-004.jpg[/img]
Freddie Kendakumana, who was charged
nearly four years after the girl's initial
complaint against him, was found guilty of
rape.
Five men sexually exploited the "profound vulnerability" of a "damaged" 15-year-old girl in Rochdale, it can be reported.
The victim, now 20, gave evidence against the defendants in two trials. Many of her abusers plied the troubled teenager with vodka and cannabis before
committing their offences, which took place in 2008 and 2009, Manchester Minshull Street crown court heard.
The majority of the defendants were first arrested last year after a separate trial at Liverpool crown court had brought to light a largely Pakistani-heritage child sex ring abusing white girls in the town. But one of her abusers, Congolese refugee Freddie Kendakumana, had been arrested and interviewed before by Greater Manchester police (GMP). In December 2008 the girl – also white – complained to police that he had raped her the month before.
The girl was told at the time by an interviewing male officer that it was important not to have any future dealings with Kendakumana while the investigation continued but she later confessed she had bumped into him at a flat. Soon after, she went on to have consensual sex with his friend when still aged 15, although that man knew she was underage.
In a later interview, she explained: "I spoke to the police about it. The police said don't go back there. If you go back up there, we don't have a case, so I said I won't. "I went on to see Freddie in a flat. I didn't really speak to him, I had a drink and then came home." Kendakamuna, 27, a was finally charged, along with his co-defendants, in October 2012 – nearly four years after the girl made the initial rape complaints as several men went on to abuse her in the intervening
period.
By that time the girl had undergone numerous video-recorded police interviews from the end of 2008 to October 2011, totalling more than 23 hours. The victim was first prompted to go to the police on the advice of a health support worker when she disclosed that Kendakumana was sexually forcing himself on her.
But social care and health professionals dealing with the youngster failed to pass on her other reports in 2008 and 2009 that she was having consensual sexual contact with older men whom she labelled "boyfriends".
Reporting restrictions were lifted on both proceedings by Judge Jonathan Foster QC at the conclusion of the second of two trials on Friday.
Last month in the first trial, Kendakumana, of Illminster, Rochdale, was convicted of rape and sexual activity with a child. He was cleared of a second count of rape.
Two other men, Mohammed Rafiq Abubaker, 32, of Freehold, Rochdale, and takeaway worker Roheez Khan, 27, of Ashfield Road, Rochdale, were found guilty of sexual activity with a child. Khan was also
convicted of witness intimidation. A fourth man, Chola Chansa, 33, of Illminster, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child just before the first trial started.
In the second trial, taxi driver Abdul Huk, 37, of Ouldfield Close, Rochdale, was found guilty on Thursday of sexual activity with a child.
All five men will be sentenced on 20 December.
On Friday the jury failed to reach a verdict on Mohammed Ali, 28, of Rochdale, on an allegation of sexual activity with a child.
The jury in the first trial also failed to reach a verdict on the same allegation againstAli and, as a consequence, the crown decided not to proceed with a third trial and has asked for the matter to lie on file.
Asrar Haider, 39, of Rochdale, was cleared by the second jury of sexual activity and inciting sexual activity with a child, while another defendant, Anjam Masood, 31, from Rochdale, was cleared of sexual activity and inciting sexual activity with a child on
the direction of the judge after the prosecution said it was no longer offering evidence against him.
Charges were also dropped before the first trial against a 34-year-old man who had been accused of engaging in sexual activity with the girl in a car when she was 12 or 13. In May last year, nine men were jailed for the systematic grooming and sexual abuse
of five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - in Heywood and Rochdale. Their trial at Liverpool crown court resulted in a national debate over the role of gangs of largely Pakistani-heritage men in grooming white
girls.
A subsequent report from child safeguarding chiefs ruled that social workers, police and prosecutors had missed opportunities to stop the exploitation in
Heywood and Rochdale. The first victim, who was 15 when the abuse began, told police what had been
happening in August 2008, but her complaint was not taken seriously and she continued to be abused by the gang until December 2008 when she became pregnant and moved away.
In July 2009, a CPS lawyer compounded the police failure to take her seriously and made the decision not to charge the two gang members she was accusing because he did not think a jury would find her credible. Social workers in Rochdale were criticised for apparently writing off underage girls who were deemed to be "making their own choices" in engaging in consensual sex.
Although the girl in the latest court proceedings was being abused at about the same time, she had no known links with any of the defendants who were jailed at Liverpool crown court. The convicted men in the Manchester trials came from a range of nationalities - Kendakumana and Chansa are from Congo, Abubaker is a Kurd, while Huk and Khan are
believed to be of Pakistani heritage. Several knew each other but it was not the prosecution case that they all acted in an organised manner.
In March, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said GMP had identified 42 potential victims of child sexual exploitation in the Rochdale area and said they were working closely with six of them to bring more people to justice.
Freddie Kendakumana, who was charged
nearly four years after the girl's initial
complaint against him, was found guilty of
rape.
Five men sexually exploited the "profound vulnerability" of a "damaged" 15-year-old girl in Rochdale, it can be reported.
The victim, now 20, gave evidence against the defendants in two trials. Many of her abusers plied the troubled teenager with vodka and cannabis before
committing their offences, which took place in 2008 and 2009, Manchester Minshull Street crown court heard.
The majority of the defendants were first arrested last year after a separate trial at Liverpool crown court had brought to light a largely Pakistani-heritage child sex ring abusing white girls in the town. But one of her abusers, Congolese refugee Freddie Kendakumana, had been arrested and interviewed before by Greater Manchester police (GMP). In December 2008 the girl – also white – complained to police that he had raped her the month before.
The girl was told at the time by an interviewing male officer that it was important not to have any future dealings with Kendakumana while the investigation continued but she later confessed she had bumped into him at a flat. Soon after, she went on to have consensual sex with his friend when still aged 15, although that man knew she was underage.
In a later interview, she explained: "I spoke to the police about it. The police said don't go back there. If you go back up there, we don't have a case, so I said I won't. "I went on to see Freddie in a flat. I didn't really speak to him, I had a drink and then came home." Kendakamuna, 27, a was finally charged, along with his co-defendants, in October 2012 – nearly four years after the girl made the initial rape complaints as several men went on to abuse her in the intervening
period.
By that time the girl had undergone numerous video-recorded police interviews from the end of 2008 to October 2011, totalling more than 23 hours. The victim was first prompted to go to the police on the advice of a health support worker when she disclosed that Kendakumana was sexually forcing himself on her.
But social care and health professionals dealing with the youngster failed to pass on her other reports in 2008 and 2009 that she was having consensual sexual contact with older men whom she labelled "boyfriends".
Reporting restrictions were lifted on both proceedings by Judge Jonathan Foster QC at the conclusion of the second of two trials on Friday.
Last month in the first trial, Kendakumana, of Illminster, Rochdale, was convicted of rape and sexual activity with a child. He was cleared of a second count of rape.
Two other men, Mohammed Rafiq Abubaker, 32, of Freehold, Rochdale, and takeaway worker Roheez Khan, 27, of Ashfield Road, Rochdale, were found guilty of sexual activity with a child. Khan was also
convicted of witness intimidation. A fourth man, Chola Chansa, 33, of Illminster, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child just before the first trial started.
In the second trial, taxi driver Abdul Huk, 37, of Ouldfield Close, Rochdale, was found guilty on Thursday of sexual activity with a child.
All five men will be sentenced on 20 December.
On Friday the jury failed to reach a verdict on Mohammed Ali, 28, of Rochdale, on an allegation of sexual activity with a child.
The jury in the first trial also failed to reach a verdict on the same allegation againstAli and, as a consequence, the crown decided not to proceed with a third trial and has asked for the matter to lie on file.
Asrar Haider, 39, of Rochdale, was cleared by the second jury of sexual activity and inciting sexual activity with a child, while another defendant, Anjam Masood, 31, from Rochdale, was cleared of sexual activity and inciting sexual activity with a child on
the direction of the judge after the prosecution said it was no longer offering evidence against him.
Charges were also dropped before the first trial against a 34-year-old man who had been accused of engaging in sexual activity with the girl in a car when she was 12 or 13. In May last year, nine men were jailed for the systematic grooming and sexual abuse
of five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - in Heywood and Rochdale. Their trial at Liverpool crown court resulted in a national debate over the role of gangs of largely Pakistani-heritage men in grooming white
girls.
A subsequent report from child safeguarding chiefs ruled that social workers, police and prosecutors had missed opportunities to stop the exploitation in
Heywood and Rochdale. The first victim, who was 15 when the abuse began, told police what had been
happening in August 2008, but her complaint was not taken seriously and she continued to be abused by the gang until December 2008 when she became pregnant and moved away.
In July 2009, a CPS lawyer compounded the police failure to take her seriously and made the decision not to charge the two gang members she was accusing because he did not think a jury would find her credible. Social workers in Rochdale were criticised for apparently writing off underage girls who were deemed to be "making their own choices" in engaging in consensual sex.
Although the girl in the latest court proceedings was being abused at about the same time, she had no known links with any of the defendants who were jailed at Liverpool crown court. The convicted men in the Manchester trials came from a range of nationalities - Kendakumana and Chansa are from Congo, Abubaker is a Kurd, while Huk and Khan are
believed to be of Pakistani heritage. Several knew each other but it was not the prosecution case that they all acted in an organised manner.
In March, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said GMP had identified 42 potential victims of child sexual exploitation in the Rochdale area and said they were working closely with six of them to bring more people to justice.
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