7 October 2021
A member of a gang who sexually exploited a child has had his sentence for abusing the girl reduced.
Naim Khan, 43, was jailed for 24 years in 2020 for a series of sexual offences against the teenager in Oxford when she was aged between 13 and 15.
The Court of Appeal in London found a previous jail term had not been properly taken into account when he was sentenced.
His prison term was reduced to 21 years.
Khan, along with Mohammed Nazir and Raheem Ahmed, was found guilty last year of 35 offences against the girl, including rape and indecent assault.
The Court of Appeal heard that as part of the same investigation, Kahn had a previous conviction in 2016 for offences against another young woman around the same time, for which he received six years.
‘Life destroyed’
It found that if all had been calculated at the same time, he would have received a sentence in the order of 27 years.
At the same appeal court hearing Nazir, 46, was refused leave to appeal.
The Court of Appeal judges – Lord Justice Bean, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker and Sir Roderick Evans – found his offences could be categorised as a “campaign of rape”.
“There are no arguable grounds for finding the 20-year sentence was in any way excessive,” it concluded.
During last year’s trial, Oxford Crown Court heard the girl was used as a “sexual commodity” by older men between 1999 and 2001.
In an impact statement read at the original trial and again at the Court of Appeal, the victim said she had suffered from “severe stress and anxiety” as a result of the crimes committed against her.
“My life has been destroyed,” her statement said.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Ross said the victim came into contact with Khan who was part of a grooming gang that was operating on the Cowley Road.
He said through the supply of cannabis and alcohol, the victim and another girl were “sucked into the vortex that was this grooming gang”.