In a shocking development, it has come to the fore that paedophiles involved in the Rotherham Muslim grooming gang scandal have received legal aid up to £500,000 after raping children as young as 11 years old. Sickeningly, as many as 70 survivors did not receive any compensation at all and dozens of others received as little as £2000.
The paedophiles, the Hussain brothers namely Arshid, Bannaras and Basharat, raped girls as young as 11 years old. They were raped, tied up, tortured and passed around among abusers. Arshid was the ring leader and he was given a 35 year sentence, Bannaras received 19 year sentence and Basharat for 25 years.
Information received via a Freedom of Information request has revealed they were awarded £370,000 in legal aid for their costs in the 2016 crown court trial. Apart from this, they also received monetary aids for hearings in other magistrate courts and family courts, which is estimated to be over £100,000. It is being alleged that they exploited the country’s laws and defrauded the hard-earned money of the British taxpayers.
Shockingly, the rapists pleaded poverty to claim legal aid from taxpayers money despite running large businesses. They own a petrol pump, several restaurants and an egg farm that supplies to supermarkets, and several other properties. It is said that they had ‘owned’ the town for than 10 years. But they were still somehow able to get money to defend their heinous crimes.
Sammy Woodhouse, 34, one of their 50 victims, told Express UK, “This is completely outrageous and immoral. They have probably received 25 per cent more money than what the survivors of their abuse have had in total as compensation.” She added, “Something needs to be put in place to stop these people just laughing at the system and milking the taxpayer dry.”
Woodhouse is currently fighting for a change in the law that requires men, who have impregnated women via rape, to be informed regarding proceedings involving the child. She had approached the Rotherham Council seeking a care order for her son who had become involved in crime and drugs. According to her, the Council shockingly invited Arshid to meet their son despite having raped the child’s mother.
A former youth worker, who helped expose the scandal, said: “I’m totally shocked and horrified. This is terrible. These rapists and abusers are pure evil but they’ve had almost half a million pounds spent on them, yet these poor girls get nothing. It feels like the judicial system is not set up to protect victims of some of the most horrendous crimes of abuse, torture and trafficking this country has ever seen.”
This is not the first time the establishment is seen to take the side of the grooming gang. The crime had started in 1990s and went on for almost two decades, but it was ignored by police and local administration. The police had ignored the reports filed by victims because they feared that they will be accused of racism as all accused were Muslims of Asian origin, mostly from Pakistan. The City Council run by the Labour party was also reluctant to take any action as the perpetrators belong to a community that votes for the party.
