A grooming gang leader who raped two girls in Rochdale has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Mohammed Zahid, known as Boss Man, gave both teenagers alcohol, money and food, as well as free underwear from his lingerie stall at Rochdaleâs indoor market.
In return, the girls were forced to engage in regular sex acts with Zahid and his friends.
The father-of-three was among seven Asian men convicted in June of committing various sexual offences against the girls between 2001 and 2006.
Prosecutors said both schoolgirls were treated as âsex slavesâ from the age of 13.
One of the girls said during the trial in Manchester that she could have been targeted by more than 200 offenders, but said âthere was that many it was hard to keep countâ.
The other girl said she was living in a local childrenâs home when she was preyed on by Zahid and fellow market traders Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50.
She said she presumed various agencies knew what was going on, as police regularly picked her up after social workers labelled her a âprostituteâ from the age of 10.
Zahid, of Station Road, Crumpsall, thought he was âalmost untouchableâ as he brazenly visited the care home to pick her up and later drop her off, the court heard.
He was convicted of raping both girls, who did not know each other, on multiple occasions.
Jurors also found him guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.
In 2016, Zahid was jailed for five years after he was convicted of engaging in sexual activity in 2005 and 2006 with a 14-year-old girl whom he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.
He was one of many men who called her phone number âout of the blueâ and went on to groom the âextremely vulnerableâ teenager.
