From the Manchester Evening News

Two paedophile cousins have been jailed after grooming and sexually abusing five vulnerable girls in a ‘campaign of rape’. Manzorr Hussain, 54, and his cousin Imtiaz Ali, 53, faced justice for crimes committed against the girls in Bury in the late 1990s.

Their victims were given drink and drugs before being abused by the men, Minshull Street Crown Court heard. They came from troubled backgrounds and were manipulated by the rapists for their own sexual gratification.

The abuse occurred mainly in Bury, but also in other locations across Greater Manchester as well as in Wales. The pair were found guilty following a four week trial. Hussain has now been locked up for 30 years and Ali for 28 years.

A third man, Hussain’s older brother Ghulam Hussain, 64, was charged with a ‘number of sexual offences’ in connection with the case but has ‘left the country’, jurors heard during the trial. They were told it was not their task to decide his guilt.

Ghulam Hussain, formerly of Manchester Road, Bury, was the ‘main man’, who abused teenage girls then ‘passed them around to others’ including his younger brother Manzorr Hussain and cousin Ali, the court heard. The trio all ran market stalls. He lived in a large home with his wife and children.

Manzoor Hussain raped and abused girls and ‘arranged for other girls to be available’ for other men. Imtiaz Ali, the younger of the three, was linked through his father being friends with the Hussain’s father. Parties would be held at one of his addresses, where the girls would be plied with drugs and alcohol and they would be expected to provide ‘sexual services’.

Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Manzorr Hussain took one of his victims to a flat, where she was told to enter a bedroom where there was nothing but a dirty mattress. There, he arranged for six strangers to abuse her, with each of them entering the room one by one.

One of the victims initially came forward to report her ordeals, and the others were then approached by officers investigating the case.

Rachel Shenton, defending Hussain said: “There are two sides to him. He has been out of trouble for 20 years. He has been a hard working man and a very good father. He is not in good health. Since then he has shown no sexual interest in children.”

For Ali, Clare Ashcroft asked to keep the custodial sentence ‘as short as possible’.

Jailing them, Judge Bernadette Baxter said: “You have shown not one jot of remorse or insight into your behaviour. You groomed, sexually abused and exploited the teen girls. Your offending can properly be described as a campaign of rape.”

Hussain, of Manchester Road, Bury, was convicted of seven counts of rape and seven counts of indecent assault. He was jailed for 30 years.

Ali, of Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe, Bury, was found guilty of five counts of rape, five counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault. He was jailed for 28 years.

Both will serve two thirds of the terms in prison and will remain on the Sex Offenders Register for life.