Eight men appear in court over historical child sexual exploitation offences
Clara Margotin, Eleanor Storey and Rod Minchin, Press Association
Eight men have appeared in court charged with 40 historical child sexual exploitation offences.
The men, aged 54 to 76, were arrested by detectives from Gwent Police earlier in July as part of an investigation into reports made by several women of sexual abuse committed against them as children between 1985 and 1996.
The defendants, who are all British citizens, appeared before Newport Magistrates’ Court for a first hearing on Friday morning, and spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses.
None of them were asked to enter a plea during the short hearing.
They are:
– Murad Ali, 57, of Swansea. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He appeared in court in person.
He is charged with two counts of rape of a girl aged 13, 14 or 15 years.
– Sheikh Mohammed Tahir Ullah, 73, of Newport. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Bangladeshi. He appeared in court in person.
He is charged with one count of rape of a female aged 16 years or over and one count of rape of a female under 16.
– Syed Mohammad Ashan Taqvi, 65, of Newport. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He appeared in court in person.
He is charged with three counts of rape of a female under 16.
– Mohammed Ramzan, 76, of Newport. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He appeared in court in person.
He is charged with seven offences – two counts of rape of a female under 16, three counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16, one count of causing the prostitution of a girl under 16, and one count of conspiring to rape a girl under the age of 16.
– Shafaq Mohammed, 58, of Birmingham. His self-defined ethnicity is Asian Pakistani. He appeared in court via videolink.
He is charged with 11 offences – five counts of rape of a female under 16, two counts of rape of a female aged 16 years or over, two counts of aiding and abetting the rape of a female under 16, causing the prostitution of a girl under 16, and causing the prostitution of a woman.
– Mohammed Sheikh Abdul Hannan, 54, of Edinburgh. His self-defined ethnicity is British Bangladeshi. He appeared in court in person.
He is charged with eight offences – two counts of rape of a female aged 16 years or over, one count of indecent assault on a woman aged over 16, three counts of aiding and abetting the rape of a female under 16 or over, and two counts of conspiring to rape a woman aged 16 or over.
– Shakeel Babur, 58, of Nelson, Lancashire. His self-defined ethnicity is British Pakistani. He appeared in court in person.
He has been charged with four counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16.
– Kevin Lawrence, 54, of Dunoon, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. His self-defined ethnicity is white European. He appeared in court in person.
He has been charged with three offences – two counts of conspiring to rape a woman aged 16 years or over and causing the prostitution of a woman.
After three brief hearings on Friday, the eight men were released on conditional bail.
They will next appear at Cardiff Crown Court on August 21.
Aminur Rahman Chowdhury, 58, of Tottenham, north London, was also charged as part of the investigation into organised grooming gang activity in south Wales.
He faces one count of rape of a female aged 16 or over.
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