Five more Rochdale based men are found guilty of grooming

Five men have been found guilty of plying two underage schoolgirls with drink and drugs before sexually abusing them in Rochdale.

One woman, identified only as girl A, was filmed being sexually assaulted while passed out from vodka as members of the gang laughed before sharing the video, a Manchester court heard.

Girl A was aged just 12 when the abuse first started. Her and another child aged 13, identified as girl B, were abused for four years between 2002 and 2006.

The trial at Minshull Street Crown Court heard the victims would often be picked up from outside their schools, still in their uniforms, and sexually assaulted against a school wall, in cars, in public parks, on Saddleworth Moor and in flats and houses.

On Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mohammed Ghani, 38, Insar Hussain, 38, Jahn Shahid Ghani, 50, and Ali Razza Hussain Kasmi, 36, all of Rochdale, were found guilty of various child sex offences.

A fifth man, Martin Rhodes, 39, of Blackpool, pleaded guilty to four counts of penetrative sex with a child, the CPS said.

Jurors cleared Ikhlaq Yousef, 38, Aftar Khan, 34, and Mohammed Iqbal, 67, of any wrongdoing.

The allegations only came to light in 2015 after girl A told of being 'beaten and raped' while on a parenting course and police were contacted.

She told course workers: 'I was abused daily for six years. I was 12 when they began to abuse me, feeding me alcohol and drugs, abuse me and pass me on to their friends.

'They did as they pleased, they made videos of me to use as blackmail.

'They sent the video around Rochdale anyway and I was branded a slag for it.'

As a result of what she told the police, they spoke with the second girl, girl B, a childhood friend.

Neither girl, as complainants of sexual offences, can be identified.

Girl A first met a group of young men who were friends of defendant Ghani when she was 12, when the alleged abuse began, she said.

This allegedly included Ghani sexually abusing her in the presence of one of her friends, aged 11.

Girl B was 13 when her alleged abuse began, jurors heard.

Girl A would be 'bombarded' with telephone calls from the men, being 'on demand' every day and encouraged to get drunk, though not all eight defendants were known to each other, jurors heard.

Sentencing will take place at a later date.