Ipswich: Three Men To Be Sentenced For Girl Abduction

26 April 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 26 April 2013, 06:09

Three men will be sentenced today for abducting a 13-year-old girl and forcing her to become their sex slave at a house in Ipswich.

The girl was subjected to a string of assaults over four days after being taken from her home in London to Ipswich in July l2012, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told Norwich Crown Court.

Suran Uddin, 28, of St Matthew's Row, Bethnal Green, London; Mohammed Sheikh, 31, of Seaton Point in Hackney, London; and Hamza Ali, 38, of Chilford Road, Waltham Forest, London, denied various sex offences during a three-week trial in February.

But following three days of jury deliberations, Uddin, Sheikh and Ali were all found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in the UK and supplying a class B drug to the victim.

Uddin was also convicted of two counts of rape.

Sheikh was convicted on a charge of causing a child to engage in sexual activity but was cleared of two counts of rape.

Ali was found guilty of a sexual assault but not guilty of rape.

They are expected to be sentenced in Norwich this morning.

Opening the trial, Miss Karmy-Jones told jurors: ``These men deliberately targeted her.

``She was an unhappy and deeply troubled child. They enticed her to travel with them in order to set her up as a sex slave and to use her for their pleasure.

``In order to do so, they plied her with drugs and alcohol and made promises that they would take care of her and give her anything she wanted.''

Abdul Hammed, 46, of Wellington Street, Ipswich, was cleared of supplying a class B drug and two counts of rape.

The judge had earlier instructed the jury to find him not guilty of trafficking.

The alleged attacks took place in a house in Chevallier Street, Ipswich.