Rotherham grooming gang: Man who indecently assaulted young girls jailed for 18 years

Mohammed Ahsan selected his victims ‘because of their vulnerability,’ say investigators

Mohammed Ahsan (National Crime Agency )

A man has been jailed for 18 years for indecently assaulting three young girls in Rotherham almost 20 years ago.

Mohammed Ahsan, 35, was handed the sentence for the historic sexual crimes at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.

The Rotherham man pleaded guilty to the string of assaults on children in the South Yorkshire town between 1999 and 2001.

Ahsan was convicted as part of Operation Stovewood – the National Crime Agency’s high-profile investigation into the abuse and exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham.

It followed Professor Alexis Jay’s 2014 report into the rape, grooming and trafficking of hundreds of children in Rotherham, which estimated that more than 1,400 children had been affected.

NCA senior investigating officer Philip Marshall said: “Ahsan’s victims were chosen because of their vulnerability and I hope his conviction, like those that came before it, have demonstrated our commitment to getting justice for those victims as they rebuild their lives.”

Ahsan is currently in Doncaster Prison, where he is serving a sentence for murder. He was jailed for life in March 2006 for the murder of 19-year-old Kimberly Fuller, according to the Rotherham Advertiser.

Five more members of grooming gangs that sexually abused girls in Rotherham were jailed by a judge in August.

The group abused seven victims, who were all under 16 at the time, after plying them with alcohol and drugs between 1998 and 2002.

The judge condemned the “indifference” of authorities who failed to protect their victims, tell the court that officials were at best “totally ineffectual” and, at worst “wholly indifferent”.

A total of 20 men have so far been convicted and the National Crime Agency vowed to continue the investigation, which has so far identified 190 suspects.

The agency now has more than 200 people working on Operation Stovewood, which had a budget last year of just under £12m.