Latest news with #ShahmeelKhan
Daily Mirror
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Grooming beast must stay in prison for raping schoolgirl, Justice Sec orders
Shahmeel Khan's victim - a teenager at the time she was raped - welcomes the decision to keep him locked up, 14 years after he was jailed in a huge Telford grooming gang investigation A rape victim has told of her relief after hearing her sex gang attacker must stay locked up despite finishing his sentence. Shahmeel Khan, 37, has been inside for 14 years for repeatedly raping an A-level student and armed robbery. The teenager was one of over 1,000 girls exploited by mainly Asian paedophiles in Telford, Shropshire, in a scandal exposed by the Sunday Mirror. Last night she said a decision to block Khan's move to an open prison was a 'huge weight off my shoulders'. Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood vetoed a Parole Board recommendation because of public safety fears and his drug abuse. After reading the Parole Board report on Khan, victim Kate Elysia said: 'I couldn't see anything that showed he understood his sexual offences. I was also really unimpressed that two witnesses had suggested he wasn't safe to be released but that he should be in open conditions so that he could be 'tested'. 'So they are literally ready to gamble with his risk of sex offending. I thought that was disgraceful, dangerous risk-taking on their part. I've always remained aware of how dangerous that man was, those risks don't go away.' Khan was convicted under West Mercia Police 's Operation Chalice which led to a handful of convictions of Telford sex gang members before being wound up to save money. In 2018 we exposed his father Shahzad 'Keith' Khan as a paedophile who abused girls in the town over four decades. The Parole Board recommended Khan junior's transfer to open conditions in April after hearing from two witnesses who suggested the move despite concerns about his drug intake because he was 'unlikely to abscond'. April's review was the third by the Parole Board since 2015, meaning he has spent another 10 years inside for public protection since he was first eligible for release. At the time of his offending, Khan was said to be violent, controlling and 'unable to manage strong emotions'. Khan had been moved to an open prison in June 2021 but 'was returned to the closed estate after one month due to concerns about comments to a member of staff'. Kate – not her real name – helped police jail him and other abusers and has written a book called The Patchwork Girl which is due out in January. But she revealed that she no longer has the right to be told about Khan's future release because he has now served the 10 years he received for raping her. The Probation Service told her: 'Unfortunately, once the sentence relating to you has ended, we do not have a legal basis under which the Probation Service's Victim Contact Scheme can continue to provide you with information for SK. I therefore regret to inform you that this means our contact, regarding SK, will end on 18 June.' Kate said: 'No rights really angered me. No right to stable mental health. No right to a normal life without having to look over my shoulder. No right to feeling safe in my home or community. It's not just about right it's about risk. Risk to me. Risk to my family. Risk to my children. Risk to the public. If they control what information I am allowed to know legally then the law has put him, the dangerous offender, the one in control.' The Ministry of Justice said: 'Public protection is our number one priority which is why the Lord Chancellor has blocked Shahmeel Khan's transfer to an open prison.' A government review last week found that child victims of rape gangs in towns like Telford were let down by the system for decades. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a national inquiry which is due to take around three years. More than 1,000 dropped child sex abuse cases are expected to be re-investigated by police.
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
'The abuse was almost daily' - Grooming survivors share their stories
Five women from across England who were groomed and abused as children or young adults have told BBC Newsnight about the ongoing impact it has had on their were targeted by adult men, mainly from a British Asian background, often against the backdrop of chaotic upbringings. They shared their stories on the same day the government confirmed the publication of a review into grooming gangs has been delayed. Kate Elysia Kate Elysia - not her real name - was abused by a gang of men of Pakistani origin in the Shropshire town of was first raped when she was 18, shortly after moving out of her family home into a bedsit, and has previously estimated she was attacked by more than 70 said her attackers treated her like "she was nothing" and that they "wanted to turn me into what they wanted me to be, so they could justify abusing me".She said her abusers would harass her on her doorstep and send men to her home asking for sex."The abuse was almost daily," she said, sometimes "multiple men a day".Kate, now 36, gave evidence to an independent inquiry into gang grooming in Telford, which found that 1,000 girls had been targeted and "nervousness about race" led to abuse being ignored for of the men who abused Kate - Mohammed Ali Sultan and Shahmeel Khan - were convicted of rape and sexual who was considered a ringleader of the gang, was released in February by the independent parole board - a decision the government said it was "disappointed" was approved for open prison conditions in is calling for the government to block her abuser from going into a low-security prison and be given the right to have day release."I'm very concerned for the public, and I'm very concerned for myself," she described him as a "scary, violent individual" and that she fears for herself and the public if he is allowed back into the community."I don't think that he would be safe to leave prison at all." Zara Zara - not her real name - the first victim of prolific abuser David Saynor to share their story publicly, told BBC Newsnight it left her fighting a "battle that I'll always be in".Saynor used his limousine business to lure child victims in Rotherham - his trial heard how we would pick up young girls at schools and children's homes and offer them "promotional work"."[It] started off as that - just promoting, getting picked up in groups and driving around, drinking, dancing," she told was just 12 when she was first groomed by Saynor, a white British man who would give his victims alcohol, drugs and money before attacking them."The more you did, the more money he'd offer you... it became normal to do that," she said she and a friend were "getting picked up from school, getting picked outside our local youth club" but no adults raised concerns."It's impacted my whole life," Zara said. "From being the age of 12, I've not lived a normal life. "I witnessed Dave assault my friend, which is the first memory that I've got of that feeling of fear, like that unexplainable fear that comes over you. And I carry guilt with me for that."Last year, Saynor, 77, was jailed for 24 years after being found guilty of 15 offences against eight young girls - including two counts of rape and five counts of meeting a child following sexual Zara also alleged she was abused by another man from a British Pakistani background, who is due to go on trial. Zara said of that alleged abuse: "To me, in my head, he was my boyfriend... he didn't abuse me straight away, so I was convinced it was a normal relationship."Zara, who is from a mixed English and Asian background, said: "It was easy for me to accept the flattery and compliments and to feel wanted... I was kind of wanting to indulge in that side of my heritage because my dad wasn't present for a while."She said police officers stopped her and the alleged abuser on more than one occasion over suspicions about an older man being with a young girl, but that nothing was done which might have led to the abuse being uncovered. Fiona Fiona Goddard was abused by a predominantly British Asian grooming gang in Bradford from the age of 14, shortly after being taken into began after one of her abusers, Basharat Khaliq, took Fiona and her friend, also 14, to a petrol station to buy them vodka."The abuse started as being more coercive, but then the more you resisted it... by the end it was violent rapes," she said."The more you resisted and tried to point out what was going on the worse it got."Fiona recounted how she had told adults about the sexual assaults she had recalled being asked if she was being groomed, but at the time she didn't understand the meaning of the word. But when asked if the men had been violent, she said yes."We basically told them that we were being groomed without using the words, but they just never did nothing," she groomers plied her with drugs and gifts. A court heard that she was "in effect used as a prostitute" by another of her has previously recounted how she was driven to suicidal thoughts and self-harm as a February 2019, nine men were convicted of 22 offences against Fiona and jailed. Khaliq received 20 years for five counts of contacted by BBC Newsnight, a spokesperson for Bradford Council said there were "significant failings" in how Fiona was cared for and reiterated its apology to her. Chantelle Chantelle was groomed and raped by a gang of British Asian men in Manchester between 2003 and 2007, beginning when she was 11 years was in the care system at the time as her mother was in and out of prison."There was males approaching the children's home, giving us alcohol and drugs and putting us in cars," she ordeal began after she met a man in his early twenties who, at the time, she considered to be her has previously recalled how he introduced her to other men and she was given alcohol and drugs, before being forced to perform sex acts on them."They sexually abused us, drugged us... made us do things we didn't want to do," she said."It was the emotional and mental impact as well that used to make you feel like you only wanted them... so you keep going back."Chantelle also recounted the time she was reported as a missing child from the children's home and later found naked in a man's house by a female was then taken back to the children's home where she reported the abuse to the Chantelle later discovered that no police report was filed at the years on, she is now being asked by police to identify the officer who found her."The female officer who found me never put it on the system. The report is there that she found me, but none of the abuse that I told her had been logged," she case is being investigated by Greater Manchester Police. No one has been charged with an who is now 33, is also suing Manchester City Council for the abuse she endured while under its care.A spokesperson for the local authority said they were "deeply sorry" for what happened to her, and that she had been "let down by the system"."Not enough was done to protect her and other vulnerable young people in similar circumstances in the late 1990s and 2000," the spokesperson said. Jade Jade said she was abused by hundreds of men, primarily from a British Asian background, in the Buckinghamshire area from the age of 14 began after she left her mother's home to live with her father, a drug addict who introduced her to a chaotic upbringing, Jade believed those dealers could protect her - but from that point on, she says she was repeatedly attacked by adult men at parties while 2008, she was placed into care and a year later was made subject to a special safeguarding order for children who repeatedly going Jade was arrested and convicted of causing or inciting another girl to engage in sexual activity after being found by police at a party with another said she was "accused of taking girls out to get sexually assaulted" but "didn't have a clue what was happening"."It's police failure, social services failure," she remains a convicted sex offender but believes that none of the men she says abused her have been convicted of a to her conviction, she said she's had to fight social services to keep her children."I've never been allowed on school trips with my children," she explained."I'm not allowed to apply for jobs for the work I want to go into with vulnerable kids."Still trying to clear her name, Jade said the experience has "been the worst experience of my life"."It's just as bad as the abuse."It feels like I'm still being abused by them. It feels like they're still controlling my life."The Maggie Oliver Foundation - a survivors charity set up by a former police officer who raised concerns about how abusers in Rochdale were investigated - said it is supporting Jade to have her conviction overturned. What the data on grooming gangs shows The BBC has obtained new police data on the ethnicity of suspects arrested on suspicion of gang grooming offences in England and Wales in National Police Chiefs' Council (NPPC) figures indicated that British Pakistanis were substantially over-represented among 2024, of grooming gang suspects where an ethnicity was recorded, just over half were white British, and around one in eight were British Pakistani - even though one in 40 people in England and Wales were of Pakistani heritage according to the 2021 NPCC told Newsnight that the figures should be regarded with caution because just under a third of suspects had their ethnicity widespread failure to collect high quality data on abusers, victims and offences was criticised by the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Chief Constable Becky Riggs, the NPCC's lead for child protection and abuse investigation, told BBC Newsnight that gang grooming offences had impacted every part of the country and cases were said: "I genuinely think out of 44 [police] forces, very few would say there isn't a crime of that type being investigated in their [area]." If you have been affected by any issues in this report, help and support is available on the BBC Action Line.
