Two men have been convicted of a series of sexual offences against two teenage girls, who were described by the gang targeting them as “fresh meat”.
Sheffield Crown Court was told the girls were sexually assaulted several times a week over a period of six months in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham more than 10 years ago.
The prosecution described the teenagers as “powerless to prevent the actions of older and more mature individuals determined to exploit them for sexual purposes”.
On Monday, Romulad Stefan Houphouet, 37, and Absolom Sigiyo, 41, were found guilty of a number of offences including rape.
A third defendant, Jacek Brzozowski, 35, was cleared of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity but admitted penetrative sexual activity with a child.
During a five-week trial, prosecutor Gordon Stables told a jury both the complainants were living in a children’s home when they were befriended by the defendants “and also other associates” in Rotherham town centre more than a decade ago.
Mr Stables said the men knew their victims were under the age of consent and “gained the girls’ trust and confidence by plying them with alcohol and giving them cigarettes at house parties, and offering them flirtatious attention”.
He said: “Both girls became conditioned to having regular sexual intercourse… the clear pre-meditated intention was to ensure that the girls entered into and remained in a state of compliance.
“Psychologically, the girls were made to feel that sexual activity was how they repaid the debt they owed the defendants for the provision of alcohol and tobacco.
“Once the males were sexually satisfied, however, the girls were treated as having served their purpose – at least temporarily – and they were often then ignored and expected to make their own way home.”
“In this way, [the girls] were sexually groomed within an environment of dependency,” he said, adding that the men referred to them as “fresh meat”.
Ivorian national Houphouet, of Burngreave in Sheffield, and Sigiyo, a Zimbabwean national of Catcliffe in Rotherham, will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Polish national Brzozowski, of Rawmarsh in Rotherham, was bailed and is being sentenced on 14 April.
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Senior investigating officer Kath Blain said: “This is one of the most harrowing cases I have investigated. Sigiyo and Houphouet lured two vulnerable girls to parties where they kept the children intoxicated so they could abuse them in the worst ways.
“Brzozwski contributed to their suffering, including by having sex with one of the girls who he knew was a child and vulnerable. The victims have shown extraordinary bravery in reporting their abuse.”
The convictions are the latest following the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) investigation, called Operation Stovewood, which has identified more than 1,100 victims of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
It was established after the landmark Jay Report, which found that hundreds of girls had been abused by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in the town.
Martin McRobb, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The victims in this case are now adults, but they have had to live with the trauma caused by the vile and serious sexual offences committed against them in their youth.
“We know it can be difficult to talk about such abuse, and I would like to extend my thanks to the victims for the courage and fortitude they showed in coming forward and giving evidence against these men.”
