London - A gang of Somali men abused and raped British schoolgirls, persuading their victims that being shared amongst them was part of their “culture and tradition”.
Ten girls aged between 13 and 17 were passed around among 13 men from the Somali community in Bristol.
Several of the victims were groomed into believing they were in relationships with the men. The abusers - seven of whom are British citizens - persuaded them it was normal to have sex with numerous Somali men for “cultural reasons”.
One girl, then aged just 13, was raped four times in one night by three different men after being taken to a hotel room.
The gang, all in their early twenties, were found guilty of offences including rape, sexual activity with a child, facilitating child prostitution and paying for sexual services of a child. One of the men called the girls “slags” and said they made up stories.
The convictions follow two separate trials at Bristol Crown Court.
At the second trial, prosecutor Anna Vigars said: “(This case) is about the defendants simply using the girls to satisfy them whenever they felt like it, doing it so often that no doubt it began to feel normal so far as these girls were concerned... Much of it is sordid. None of it is romantic”.
The first trial, which lasted eight weeks earlier this year but could not be reported until now, focused on seven men’s abuse of a girl, then aged 16, and her friends.
They used her flat, provided by social services, to deal drugs before “ruthlessly exploiting” her. The events came to light only when police visited, looking for the girl’s younger sister, 14, who had run away. They found her in her underwear in a cupboard under a sink. She told officers: “They made me do stuff.”
Liban Abdi, 21, Mustapha Farah, 21, Arafat Osman, 20, Idleh Osman, 22, Abdulahi Aden, 20, Said Zakaria, 22, and Mustafa Deria, 22, were jailed for 76 years in total in June for child sexual exploitation or drugs offences.
The second trial, which lasted 10 weeks at Bristol Crown Court and finished on Thursday, concentrated on girls being moved around the city for use by other men. Zakaria, Mohamed Jumale, 24, Mohamed Dahir, 22, Jusuf Abdizirak, 20, Omar Jumale, 20, Abdirashid Abdulahi, 21, and Sakariah Sheik, 21, were found guilty of a combined 20 child sexual exploitation offences.
They gave girls money and paid for hair extensions and trips to restaurants and night clubs, then passed them around for sex.
The victims in the first trial were all in care, but those in the second were said to have “normal” homes.
On one day victim A, the focus of most of the charges in the latest trial, was raped four times. Then 13, she was raped at a house in Bristol then taken to a Premier Inn hotel, where Zakaria and Abdizirak took turns to have sex with her.
On another occasion, the same girl was forced to have sex with Omar Jumale after she was told he would “turn gay” if she did not.
Despite her protests, the court heard, she was under the “spell” of his brother Mohamed and agreed.
Prosecutor Vigars said: “He wanted her to have sex with his friends, that that was his tradition, his culture.
“He told her men always have sex with each other’s girlfriends. She didn’t believe him but that is the line he was feeding her. She was saying no to him, telling him she wasn’t interested, but he made her have sex with all of the men.”
Mohamed Jumale was convicted of one count of rape, seven of sexual activity with a child and one of aiding or abetting another into the same offences.
Judge Julian Lambert will on Friday sentence the men from the second trial. A serious case review by social services will attempt to discover what went wrong.
Chief Superintendent Julian Moss, of Avon and Somerset police, said that despite similarities with grooming rings in Oxford and Rochdale, this case was not the same “kind of picture” and did not appear to involve historical abuse.
Muna Abdi, of the Bristol Somali Forum, said: “I am hoping people will look at this as a crime and not just a crime for the Somali community. The community is deeply shocked and shaken.
“They are unforgivable acts of cruelty against the most vulnerable members of our community”.
Daily Mail