Nine jailed in UK in Asian sex gangs case

London, May 10: London Nine men in northwest England were sentenced to jail terms Wednesday for luring girls as young as 13 years old into sexual encounters using alcohol and drugs — a case that has stirred racial tensions and sparked claims that authorities are failing to protect vulnerable children in state care.

Judge Gerald Clifton said the men, aged between 22 and 59 and all of Pakistani or Afghan origin, were driven by "lust and greed", and sentenced them for crimes including trafficking and rape.

The 59-year-old ringleader of the group received 19 years in jail, while his co-accused received between four and 12 years.

Up to 50 white girls preyed upon

Police and social workers were accused of failing to investigate an Asian paedophile gang for fear of being perceived as racist, leaving the men free to prey on up to 50 white girls.

Nine men from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, were convicted of abusing five vulnerable teenagers after plying them with alcohol and small sums of money.

The true number of victims who were "passed around" by the gang was likely to have been nearer 50, police said.

Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service apologised after they failed to bring the case of the first victim, known as Girl A, to trial following her initial cry for help in August 2008.

One 13-year-old victim became pregnant and had the child aborted while another was raped by 20 men in one night, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Complaints to social workers and the police were ignored because they were "petrified of being called racist", Ann Cryer, the former Labour MP for Keighley, said.

Untold misery

Cryer, who has campaigned to bring the issue of Asian sex gangs to light, said the girls had been "betrayed" and condemned to "untold misery" by the police and social services.

"This is an absolute scandal. They were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness," she said.

"They had a greater fear of being perceived in that light than in dealing with the issues in front of them."

Girl A told police that she had been raped and provided DNA evidence from her attacker. The CPS twice decided not to prosecute him. As a result, the 15 year-old's abuse continued.

At its height she was driven to flats and houses to be raped by up to five men a night, four or five days a week.

She was singled out because she was white, vulnerable and under-age.

Her ordeal only ended when she became pregnant and her teachers became concerned by the number of Asian men picking her up from school.