Oct 19 2018
Lengthy article.
How Huddersfield grooming gang operated
"How did the abusers control their victims?
The men, who are all British Asians mainly of Pakistani heritage, groomed girls by making them feel special, then plying them with alcohol, cannabis and other drugs.
They then used violence and threats to control them, on one occasion threatening to bomb a girl's family home.
The victims were often taken to parties where they were given drink and drugs and forced to have sex with men who were sometimes decades older than them.
On other occasions they were sexually assaulted in car parks, above takeaways, at snooker clubs and in parks around West Yorkshire.
Some were raped and abused as part of "truth or dare games" while others were abandoned on the moors late at night if they refused to do what they were told.
One girl was raped by the gang's leader as punishment for "showing him up" after she refused to perform a sex act on another man in the back of a car.
The same girl was also forced to have an abortion and told the court she had no idea whose baby it was.
Another girl was abducted from the children's home she was staying in and taken and abused on the moors when she was just 12."
"Who did the gang target?
In total 15 girls aged between 11 and 17 fell victim to the gang.
Many of them were socially isolated and as such became "easy targets for abuse", the court heard.
Among the victims were girls with mild learning disabilities, girls who were bullied at school; one girl's mother was completely unable to look after her because of her own drink and drug problems.
As a result they often craved the attention they were given, leaving them unable to see what was being done to them until it was too late.
The court heard some of the victims felt they were in genuine relationships, such was the extent to which they had been groomed."
