Christians Under Attack

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spoke out after the men were convicted of abducting the teens.

The 15-year-old’s mum, from 
Deepdale, said: “It just did not seem a reality.”

The 35-year-old spoke after Faisal Ghani and Mohammed Moosa, admitted taking the children without consent. Moosa also admitted sexual activity with a girl under 16 in a hearing at Preston Crown Court.

Ghani, 24, of Albert Terrace, Deepdale and Moosa, 24, Holmrook Road, Deepdale, groomed the girls, aged 15 and 13, over several months in 2009 before abducting them and taking them to a hotel.

The mum of three said: “My daughter has had to make a fresh start, she has reverted to Islam and changed her name since this happened. You are seen as pure, it has been a good thing.”

The girls, from the same street, met the pair when they pulled up in a car and started talking to them. They went for car journeys with them and, as the web of exploitation developed, were taken to a “chill pad” in Ribbleton – a flat rented out but not lived in, used by different men to take girls back to.

The mum said: “Before this happened, my daughter was shy and insecure, and had low self-confidence. When she met them she had never been in that kind of trouble. But suddenly she found a new confidence, probably because they were grooming her.

“She started coming in later and at first I put it down to the usual teenage rebellion. But I started getting suspicious because she never asked for money.”

Both girls started playing truant, and staying out late. Concerned police spotted them getting out of a car after they sneaked out one night.

Preston Police’s Operation Deter team which tackles sexual exploitation of youngsters in the city became involved amid fears they could be being groomed.

The situation escalated on New Year’s Day this year when they went missing.

Her mum said: “I had been invited to a meal with my best friend, the other girl’s mum, by neighbours on our street but I had told her to go and that I would keep and eye on the girls.

“Her daughter was having a sleepover so I kept going checking on her then coming back. My daughter was in her dressing gown and looked like she was going nowhere so I took myself for a nap at about 7am before my toddler woke up. When I woke up she had gone. She had not taken a bag, just the clothes she was stood in.

“I went to my friend’s and we rang the police. She, like me, was worried sick, and angry. The possibility they had been abducted seemed far fetched. I remember feeling angry with her, thinking she was probably sat in a friend’s house listening to music, oblivious.”

A police hunt was sparked and as the hours passed, the mothers were more and more worried.

She said: “My two-year-old kept walking into her bedroom and saying, ‘Mummy she’s still not home’.”

On January 2 officers raided a room in a Blackpool hotel after they traced a text message and arrested Ghani and Moosa.

The mum thinks hotels have a responsibility to alert police in suspicious situations – after it emerged the children had arrived at the hotel with the 13-year-old barefoot in pyjamas.

During the ordeal, she was invited to a new support group set up for parents in her situation called SEEN (Sexual Exploitation Ends Now).

After meeting another victim’s mum they decided to branch out and make other parents aware of the issue. They have since addressed PACT meetings and social services functions.

Det Insp Jonathan Holmes, from Preston Police’s public protection unit, said: “We are pleased with the result of the pleas which is testament to the bravery of the young victims in coming forward.

“We met with hoteliers from Preston recently to address the problem of sexual exploitation and maximise the protection we offer young people. It was positive and  we will meet again in the near future.”

Ghani and Moosa will be sentenced on September 1.

http://www.lep.co.uk