Two men have been jailed for a total of 58 years for the systematic sexual abuse of five teenage girls in Bury between 1996 and 1999.
Imtiaz Ali, 53, and Manzorr Hussain, 54, were found guilty of more than 20 offences following a trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. The crimes were committed over two decades ago when the victims were aged between 13 and 16.
Ali, from Radcliffe, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was convicted of five counts of rape, five counts of indecent assault, and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Hussain, from Bury, received a 30-year sentence after being found guilty of seven counts of rape and seven of indecent assault.
The convictions follow an investigation by Greater Manchester Police’s Bury Complex Safeguarding Team, working in close collaboration with the Crown Prosecution Service’s dedicated Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit.
The abuse was described in court as targeted, deliberate, and sustained, with the pair grooming vulnerable young girls using attention, alcohol, drugs and lifts, before sexually assaulting them. Some offences were committed jointly, and involved physical coercion.
The abuse took place in various locations across Bury, Greater Manchester and parts of Wales, including homes, vehicles, a hotel and a car dealership. Hussain was also found to have facilitated the abuse of girls by other men, including Ali.
During the trial, the court heard that one girl was taken to a flat and made to perform sex acts with strangers, while another was repeatedly drugged and raped at Ali’s home. In one case, a girl was forced to perform sex acts in a car while both men watched.
The victims’ accounts were key to the case. The first survivor to report the abuse enabled police to trace and identify four more victims. All provided consistent and corroborating statements. Despite the passage of time, the women were able to recall addresses, dates and specific details that aligned with historical social care and school records.
Both men denied the allegations throughout, but a jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts.
Claire Brinton, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said: “These sentences reflect the severity of the appalling crimes committed by Manzorr Hussain and Imtiaz Ali. They treated five vulnerable girls as objects for their own gratification, showing no remorse.”
She added that the survivors’ courage had been instrumental in bringing the men to justice, and hoped the outcome would offer some sense of closure.
James Bolton-Smith, Head of the CPS’s Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, said the case demonstrated the determination to hold offenders accountable, no matter how much time had passed.
Chief Inspector Ian Partington of GMP praised the bravery of the survivors and said the convictions showed the force’s commitment to pursuing historical child sexual abuse cases: “Time is no barrier when it comes to being sexually abused. We will listen, support, and act.”
He confirmed that the case remains one of many being pursued by specialist teams across Greater Manchester, including a dedicated unit for non-recent child sexual exploitation.
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