Man jailed for raping 14-year-old girl in Rotherham alley

42-year-old Waleed Ali was found guilty of the crime that took place 21 years ago

A man has been jailed for five years after raping a 14-year-old girl in a Rotherham alley 21 years ago, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Waleed Ali, 42, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, was sentenced immediately after jurors found him guilty of raping a girl under 16 at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, police said.

He was convicted in early 2003 of raping and sexually assaulting another 13-year-old girl in the same alley, following an investigation by South Yorkshire Police, the NCA said.

His latest conviction came as a result of the NCA’s Operation Stovewood investigation into historic allegations of abuse in Rotherham, Yorkshire, between 1997 and 2013 – the largest investigation into child sexual exploitation in the UK.

Ali was arrested and questioned in September 2021 after a woman told Operation Stovewood officers she had been assaulted at the age of 14 and had never reported it before.

Ali was in his early 20s and living in Rotherham when he saw the victim sitting alone by a fountain in the town centre sometime between March 2003 and March 2004, the NCA said.

He and a group of men approached the girl and asked her to come with him to a nearby alley, police said. When she refused, Ali grabbed her arm and tried to force her to her feet.

The girl was “intimidated” by the men into entering the dark alley where Ali raped her “out of public view”, the NCA said.

During questioning in 2021, he told officers their questions made him feel “sick” and denied the crime.

Chief Investigator Stuart Cobb said: “After speaking to the victim, officers from the National Crime Agency identified precise corroborating evidence.

“For 21 years the victim suffered in silence, but her courageous testimony combined with our investigative work has ensured that her attacker has been brought to justice.

“I urge anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred, to seek help and, if they feel ready, to report it to the police, who have specially trained officers to investigate such cases.”

Seven men were jailed on Thursday and Friday for sexually abusing two young girls in Rotherham in the 2000s as part of Operation Stovewood, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The abuse began when one of the girls was just 11. Sheffield Crown Court said the defendants regularly drove to the victims’ cars and gave them cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis and money.

The girls were then abused, forced to perform sexual acts or raped.

Operation Stovewood was set up in response to the ground-breaking 2014 Jay Report, which found that at least 1,400 girls were abused in Rotherham by gangs made up of men of mainly Pakistani origin between 1997 and 2013.

Dozens of people have been convicted as a result of the operation, which the NCA says is the largest law enforcement operation of its kind ever carried out in the UK.

Last year, the NCA announced that new allegations would be dealt with by South Yorkshire Police rather than Operation Stovewood. The NCA said more than 1,100 children had been identified as being involved in the exploitation between 1997 and 2013, almost all of them girls.

The agency said it is committed to continuing the current investigations until the end of the criminal process, which is expected to last until 2027.

Previous estimates put the cost of Operation Stovewood at around £90 million.

According to the NCA, anyone who has been sexually abused as a child can report it to the police by calling 101 or visiting a police station.

Published: 14/09/2024 by Radio NewsHub