Three guilty of rape after police uncover abuse at illicit parties

THREE predatory men have been told to expect long jail sentences after a jury found them guilty of raping vulnerable young girls in Plymouth.

- CARL EVE

During a five-week trial, a jury at Plymouth Crown Court heard how the older men targeted four teenage girls, debilitating them with drink or drugs at house parties for the purpose of serious sexual assault.

The jury also heard a statement from the mother of one of the girls who revealed how she had repeatedly contacted authorities, raising concerns for her daughter, saying “it felt like I was fighting the whole world and no-one was listening to me”.

The abuse came to light after another girl came forward and gave key evidence to police having watched the BBC drama Three Girls which depicted the Child Sexual Exploitation investigation in Rochdale.

The jury heard the programme “triggered her” and she reported how during a series of parties in Plymouth in 2017 where girls had been given alcohol and money to buy drugs, they were slowly groomed and then sexually assaulted by the men present.

Devon and Cornwall Police launched the investigation – codenamed Operation Garcia – in 2017, which resulted in four men being charged.

The jury watched a series of video interviews by specially trained police officers with the girls, saw them give evidence and cross-examined in the witness stand, as well as a series of police witnesses, statements and the men themselves give evidence. After being sent out to consider their verdict on Friday, they returned yesterday.

Abalzaq Salih, 31, from Plymouth, was convicted of two counts of rape of a female aged 15 or under, while 32-year-old Saif Kahya from Liverpool was found guilty of one count of rape of a female aged 16 or over. Anthony Anantharajah, aged 35, from London, was convicted of one count of rape of a female aged 16 or over. He was found not guilty of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 15 or under.

A fourth man, 45-year-old Moussa Ahmadou, from Plymouth, was found not guilty of sexual assault on a female.