In one of the biggest cases of child exploitation in recent years, an Oxford-based gang of seven men have been found guilty of child rape, trafficking and organizing prostitution.
The Britain's biggest child sex gang has subjected vulnerable girls as young as 11 years to sexual abuse for about six years even after the first victim confessed about the torture and sexual violence she was made to suffer, The Independent reports.
According to the report, police and local authorities have regretted their failure to prevent any more abuse by the gang members even after charging them for a series of sex and drug offences at Old Bailey in London.
The child protection experts have accused the police of overlooking obvious signs of abuse in the six victims of the ring and letting them down.
The seven men, aged between 27 and 38, were warned by Judge Peter Rook that they would be subjected to long custodial sentences for involving vulnerable young girls in brutal sexual abuse.
Two sets of brothers, Akhtar Dogar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 31, and Mohammed Karrar, 38, and Bassam Karrar, 33, along with Kamar Jamil, 27, Assad Hussain, 32, and Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, had been convicted of a string of offences including rape, torture and sexual violence over eight years.
Yet, Mohammed Hussain and another man in the gang had been cleared of all charges.
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The report said that a case review panel will look into the failure of the Oxfordshire County Council to stop the gang and other men from holding girls living in care homes in the Oxford area against their will and sexually abusing them, adding that the Thames Valley Police will also be under the scanner as the force failed to act until early 2012 even as the first victim complained of abuse back in 2006.
Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council recognized that the city had a problem with the sexual abuse of children as late as February 2011, even as the investigation started by May and the accused were arrested even 10 months later.
Both the Dogar brothers and Bassam Karrar had been released following their arrest between August and November 2006 and continued their brutal abuse for six years as the cases against them were dropped by the girls who were either unable or unwilling to provide any evidence.
The report further said that Armit Singh, 32, and Ricky Krong, 39, were also imprisoned for sexual activity with some of these children. Yet despite proofs that the victims were at risk of child sex exploitation, the police again missed the chance to end their ordeal.
While a trial was ongoing after one of the girls complained that she was made to have cocaine by the gang and had been kept by two Asian men against her will for two years, another girl complained of being repeatedly raped, beaten and abused by Bassam Karrar but later withdrew it.
Stating that it takes months to establish a relationship with the victims, former acting detective chief inspector Simon Morton said that the gang members have acted as predators who managed to own the girls by eroding their will completely.