United Kingdom, London: Yesterday, three brothers and their uncle were found guilty of sexually exploiting young girls in northern England, in the latest of a string of grooming trials. Brothers Arshid and Basharat Hussain were found guilty of multiple rapes and indecent assaults in the town of Rotherham in Yorkshire between 1987 and 2003, against 15 victims as young as 11.

Their younger brother, Bannaras Hussain, had previously admitted 10 similar charges, while their uncle Qurban Ali was found guilty of conspiracy to rape. Two women, Shelley Davies and Karen MacGregor, were convicted of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment. The case represents the first successful prosecution of a gang in Rotherham since a 2014 report warned of as many as 1,400 victims of child sexual exploitation in the town.

Their trial heard how vulnerable girls, many from troubled backgrounds or living in care, were groomed by the gang before being beaten, raped and passed around to have sex with other men. Peter Mann of the Crown Prosecution Service said, “Arshid Hussain in particular played a key role. He was domineering and in some instances brutal in his treatment of girls”. The six members of the gang will be sentenced on Friday.