In a landmark sentencing that has sent shockwaves through Greater Manchester and beyond, seven men have been jailed for a combined 174 years for their roles in the sexual exploitation of two vulnerable schoolgirls in Rochdale. At the center of the case was Mohammed Zahid, a 65-year-old market stallholder known locally as “Boss Man,” who was handed a 35-year prison sentence for raping two girls and orchestrating a network of abuse that spanned from 2001 to 2006.
The convictions, delivered at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court in June and finalized on October 1, 2025, mark the eighth time a group of mainly Pakistani heritage men have been brought to justice for grooming girls in Rochdale since the early 2000s, according to the Daily Mail. The case has reignited fierce debate about institutional failings, with renewed calls for a national statutory inquiry into how such crimes were allowed to persist for so long.
Prosecutors described the two victims, known only as Girl A and Girl B, as “sex slaves,” exploited from the age of 13. The abuse took place in squalid flats, cars, alleyways, and disused warehouses across the town. The girls—who did not know each other—were plied with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and even free underwear from Zahid’s lingerie stall in exchange for sex with Zahid and his associates. “They were abused, degraded and then discarded,” Judge Jonathan Seely stated during sentencing, as reported by BBC News. “It would have been obvious to these men that they craved the attention that their home lives didn’t provide. They felt they had little or no choice but to submit to the almost incessant sexual abuse meted out to them.”
The other convicted men—Mushtaq Ahmed (67), Kasir Bashir (50), Mohammed Shahzad (44), Naheem Akram (49), Nisar Hussain (41), and Roheez Khan (39)—were each found guilty of various sexual offences, including multiple counts of rape and indecency with a child. Their sentences ranged from 12 to 29 years. Bashir, who absconded before the trial, was sentenced in his absence and is believed to be out of the country, according to BBC News and the Daily Mail.
The court heard distressing testimony from both victims. Girl A revealed she may have been targeted by hundreds of men, her phone number passed around so widely that, in her words, “there was that many it was hard to keep count.” Girl B, who was living in a children’s home at the time, said, “I have never been able to move on from the abuse. This has not just impacted my life and what I could have achieved, but also my children’s lives. They have become victims of these men too.” She described her experience as “horrific” and said her life had been “on hold” for the past 20 years.
Both girls came from troubled backgrounds and, according to court documents, were known to local authorities. Girl B was scandalously labeled a “prostitute” by social workers from the age of ten, a detail that Judge Seely called “chilling.” Girl A reported her situation to children’s services in 2004, stating she was “hanging around” with groups of older men, but meaningful intervention never materialized. “They were highly susceptible to the advances of these men and others, and both were sexually abused by numerous other men. They were passed around for sex—abused, humiliated, degraded and then discarded. Both were seriously let down by those whose job it was to protect them,” Judge Seely said, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Police and social services have since apologized for their failures. Sharon Hubber, director of children’s services at Rochdale Borough Council, acknowledged, “The council is in a very different place to where it once was more than a decade ago, and our work to improve our safeguarding practice and our response to child sexual exploitation has been recognized in every Ofsted inspection since 2014. We will not be complacent, however, and we remain committed to doing all that we can with our partners to protect and support victims and survivors.”
The crimes only came to light in 2015, after one of the victims—who had also suffered at the hands of another grooming gang—reported the abuse to police. Det Ch Insp Guy Laycock of Greater Manchester Police condemned the men’s “callous disregard” for their victims, stating, “This horrific abuse knew no limits, despite their denials throughout this lengthy investigation and court case. They had a callous disregard for these women when they were girls and continue to show no remorse for their unforgivable actions all these years later.”
Liz Fell, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, praised the courage of the victims: “Both victims have shown an enormous amount of strength and dignity throughout what has been a lengthy and challenging legal process. The impact of child sexual abuse extends far beyond the immediate offending. Both women not only gave evidence during the trial but have assisted the Court further by providing Victim Personal Statements describing in tragic detail the trauma they have carried for decades, and the impact this offending has had on all parts of their lives.”
The sentences handed down included 35 years for Zahid, 29 years for Bashir, 27 years for Ahmed, 26 years each for Shahzad and Akram, 19 years for Hussain, and 12 years for Khan. The Daily Mail noted that Zahid had previously been jailed in 2016 for engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl he met at his stall in 2005 and 2006. The men, all of whom worked as market stallholders or taxi drivers, were found to have systematically targeted girls in vulnerable situations, exploiting their need for attention, shelter, and basic necessities.
The fallout from the case has prompted renewed scrutiny of institutional responses to child sexual exploitation. Chris Philp, the Conservatives’ Shadow Home Secretary, declared, “The crimes committed by these men are sickening. Their victims were raped and abused for years, and the youngest was just 13 years old. It should not have taken 20 years to get these convictions. Not a single person in authority has ever been held to account for covering up crimes like these, and for ignoring the victims. It's time for a national statutory inquiry to get to the truth about the cover-ups.”
Estimates cited by the Daily Mail suggest that upwards of 250,000 girls have been attacked repeatedly by street gangs in 50 British towns and cities over the past 40 years. This latest case, while bringing some measure of justice to the victims, underscores the urgent need for continued vigilance, accountability, and systemic reform to ensure that vulnerable children are never again so grievously failed by the very institutions meant to protect them.
