“I don’t believe Telford has a discernible problem compared to other towns. “Child sexual exploitation will be taking place all over the country and Telford is not different to anywhere else.
Tom Harding, then the superintendent in charge of Telford police.
Labelled as Britain’s worst sex-abuse scandal the Telford Grooming gang showed just the tip of the iceberg of abuse by the ethnic minorities in towns and cities where there is a large ethnic majority, with claims that up to 1,000 children could have been affected. Operation Chalice identified more than 100 girls who had been targeted by a child sex abuse gang, and it soon became clear that the seven convictions were just the tip of the iceberg.
Concerns that Telford was the centre of an organised child-sex ring first emerged in May 2013, when seven men were jailed for a string of offences relating to four teenage girls who in the words of one of them was ‘passed around like a piece of meat’.
Mubarek Ali, Ahdel Ali
The leader of this vile gang
- Ahdel Ali, then 25, was convicted of 18 offences, including the rape of a 13-year-old girl, six offences of under-age sex with the same girl, three charges of controlling a child prostitute and sexual activity with a second victim, two offences of sexual activity with a child involving a third girl and offences of grooming and inciting child prostitution and sexual activity with a fourth victim. The paedophile was handed a 26-year extended sentence, with an order that he should serve 18 years in prison as well as an additional eight years on licence. Mean while his brother….
- Mubarek Ali, who lived with his brother Ahdel Ali in Regent Street, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1 was convicted of seven offences, four of controlling child prostitution, causing child prostitution and two offences of trafficking children for prostitution. He received a 22-year sentence – 14 years immediate custody, with eight years on licence following his release. Released 2017 recalled back to prison 2018 Received an extra 12 yrs 2024
- Mohammed Ali Sultan, then 26, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1 received a seven-year sentence after admitting sex with a 13-year-old and another teenage girl, and controlling a third girl as a child prostitute. 2015, Mohammed Ali Sultan was jailed for a further 11 years at Shrewsbury Crown Court after being found guilty of rape. In 2019, he was before the courts again, where he was jailed for a further eight years after being convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.
- Mohammad Rizwan, #AMONG US# 2019 trial then 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for indecent assault. Rizwan had saved his victim’s phone number under the contact name ‘blowjob2’, jurors heard.
- Amjad Hussain, #AMONG US# 2019 trial 38, who was unanimously convicted of a single count of indecent assault jailed for four-and-a-half years.
- Shafiq Younas, #AMONG US# 2019 trial then 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, was found guilty of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison., but was later cleared on appeal.
- Tanveer Ahmed, #AMONG US# 40, of Urban Gardens, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1, admitted selling a teenage girl for sex to a man in Oakengates. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
- Mohammed Islam Choudhrey, #AMONG US# 53, of Sutton Hill, Madeley, Telford, TF7 4, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting paying to have sex with a teenage prostitute controlled by the Ali brothers.
- Mahroof Khan, #AMONG US# 35, an unemployed chef, of Caradoc Flats King’s Haye Road, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1, admitted having under-age sex with a teenage girl. He was jailed for underage sex, but walked free after spending more than 900 days on a tag while on bail.
- Mohammed Younis, #AMONG US# 60, had also been jailed the previous December for allowing his flat in Kingsland, Arleston, Telford, TF1 2 to be used for prostitution.
- Map of Addresses the arrested lived at
December 22, 2019
Telford rape victim ‘sobbed’ when abusers were finally jailed
A woman who was sexually abused by four men when she was 12 years old has revealed she ‘sobbed’ when they were jailed for more than 22 years.
The victim was passed around ‘around like a piece of meat’, forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, raped above a shop on a filthy mattress and violently attacked when she attempted to refuse advances, Birmingham Crown Court heard this week.
She was even spat at and urinated on throughout her ordeal between 2000 and 2003 in Telford, West Midlands, the court was told.
Five men went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court, leading to convictions for four of the defendants while another was cleared.
The victim told the Sunday Mirror of her relief when the group was sentenced to between four-and-a-half and eight years each in jail on Thursday.
She said: ‘When I found out they’d been found guilty, I just sobbed.
‘I was relieved, happy and sad, all at the same time.’
She added: ‘I did have doubts about whether I’d get justice after such a long time but when this sort of thing happens it’s something you are never going to forget.’
Sentencing the group on Thursday, Judge Melbourne Inman QC said they had abused a ‘helpless’ victim.
Jurors were told the woman was sold for sex, first by a man named Tanveer Ahmed who ‘befriended her’ during a low point in her life.
Ahmed, a pizza delivery man, was not on trial alongside the other defendants, having been deported to Pakistan for ‘unrelated offences’, the court heard.
He was jailed for two and a half years in 2012 after admitting a charge of controlling a child prostitute.
Ahmed was one of a number of men imprisoned after an investigation into a child sex abuse ring in Telford as part of West Mercia police’s Operation Chalice inquiry.
‘Ringleader’ Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault on Tuesday.
He was jailed for eight years with an extended licence period of two years and made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Sultan was also slapped with a restraining order preventing him from having contact with the victim indefinitely.
He already had previous convictions, in 2012 and 2015, for similar offences.
Sultan’s sentence will run consecutively to a six-year jail term he is already serving, giving him a total of 14 years with an extended licence period of two years.
Addressing him, the judge said: ‘The victim was clearly extremely frightened of you, and you exercised significant control over her.’
- Co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, #AMONG US# 37, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault and jailed for five-and-a-half years. Rizwan had saved his victim’s phone number under the contact name ‘blowjob2’, jurors heard.
- Shafiq Younas, #AMONG US# 35, was found guilty of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
- Amjad Hussain, #AMONG US# 38, who was unanimously convicted of a single count of indecent assault on Tuesday but was cleared by jurors on Wednesday of another similar offence, was also jailed for four-and-a-half years.
- The fifth defendant, Nazam Akhtar, 35, was cleared of rape.
- https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/22/telford-rape-victim-sobbed-abusers-finally-jailed-11947466/
The judge said the men had abused the ‘helpless’ victim, who had been groomed until she was ‘no longer in effective control of her own life’.
He said: ‘Each of you knew this girl was utterly defenceless and was being used as a sex object by others,’
‘She was simply being used for male sexual gratification.’
Operation Chalice – was a two-year investigation into a Wellington-based sex abuse gang by West Mercia Police – that had been subject to reporting restrictions. But the conviction of the paedophiles Ahdel ‘Eddie’ Ali and Mubarek ‘Max’ Ali, along with five paedophile accomplices, laid bare the crimes that had been taking place in the historic market town for years. This became true when In 2015, Mohammed Ali Sultan was jailed for a further 11 years at Shrewsbury Crown Court after being found guilty of rape. In 2019, he was before the courts again, where he was jailed for a further eight years after being convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault. His co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, then 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for indecent assault. Shafiq Younas, then 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, received a four-and-a-half year term for indecent assault, but was later cleared on appeal.
Tom Harding, then the superintendent in charge of Telford police, described the claims as sensationalism. He said he had no idea where that figure of 1,000 had come from, and said Telford was no different from any other town.
“Child sexual exploitation wasn’t even a defined category 40 years ago, so I have no idea how they have come to that figure,” said Mr Harding.
“I don’t believe Telford has a discernible problem compared to other towns. “Child sexual exploitation will be taking place all over the country and Telford is not different to anywhere else.
“Something on the scale of what was revealed by Operation Chalice wouldn’t be able to happen today without it being picked up.”
Mr Harding said the police now had officers who worked closely with the local authority to ensure the victims received support.
Telford grooming gang paedophile Mubarek Ali admits new charges – BBC News
Telford grooming gang leader back behind bars – BBC News
Mubarek Ali: Telford grooming gang leader to remain in jail – BBC News
Telford grooming ‘tip of the iceberg’, says solicitor – BBC News
Telford gang is jailed for sexually abusing girls | Shropshire Star