Τhe phenomenon of the burnt-wing butterfly: Exemplary conviction of a child abuse ring in Britain

On 1 October, 2025, 65-year-old Mohammed Zahid, known as "Boss Man," was sentenced to 35 years in prison as a leading member of a grooming gang in Rochdale, England. The gang of which Zahid was a founding member was convicted of systematically sexually abusing two underage girls between 2001 and 2006, when the girls were 13 years old. Zahid already had a previous conviction in 2016, where he was sentenced to imprisonment for sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, writes Dimitra Staikou.

During the trial in June 2025, a total of seven men were found guilty on a total of 50 counts, including rape, indecent assault on a minor, and procuring a child for sex. Zahid was found guilty of 20 offenses (including rape, indecent acts with a minor, and attempting to lure a minor into a sexual act). His conviction and that of his accomplices carry very severe sentences: the sentences for the others range from 12 to 29 years.

The two students were 13 years old when the exploitation began (2001-2006). Zahid ran an underwear stall at a market (a lingerie stall at Rochdale Indoor Market). He gave the girls free underwear, money, food, drinks (alcohol) in exchange for sex. One of the students lived in a care home. Zahid was going to the institution to pick her up and bring her back.

The court revealed how the girls were victims of sexual abuse from the age of 13 in dirty flats, car parks, alleyways, and abandoned warehouses in Manchester.Referred to as Girl A and Girl B by members of Zahid's gang, they were treated as "sex slaves" who were forced to sleep with whoever the perpetrators instructed them to.Both girls, who didn't know each other, came from deeply troubled family backgrounds, and their perpetrators offered them drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, as well as accommodation, with the aim of manipulating them.

The police released footage of their interrogation. When imposing the sentence, Judge Jonathan Seely stated that the treatment of the girls by the "predatory" men was "unacceptable." "They were abused, humiliated, and then rejected," he said. It would have been obvious to these men that they were craving the attention their family lives weren't providing them. They felt they had little or no choice but to submit to the almost constant sexual abuse inflicted upon them.

Detective Constable Jay Leacock, from Greater Manchester Police, said the men "exploited the girls' vulnerability for their own perverted sexual gratification".

"This horrific abuse knew no bounds, despite their denials throughout this lengthy investigation and trial," he said. They had a casual contempt for these women when they were girls and continue to show no remorse for their unforgivable actions all these years later.
Liz Fel, a Crown Prosecution Service special prosecutor, said the men took advantage of the teenagers' "difficult circumstances" and praised the young girls for their courage in testifying. "Both victims have shown tremendous strength and dignity throughout a long and difficult legal process," he said.

Analyzing the victims' profiles, the girls in Rochdale were particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse due to a combination of personal, family, and social factors. They lived in troubled family environments with limited supervision or neglect, while poverty and lack of support made them more dependent on others. They were young (13 years old), with limited judgment and experience to recognize the danger, while their emotional need for acceptance and love made them easier to manipulate by the perpetrators. Low self-esteem and a lack of a social support network increased their vulnerability, while the perpetrators used gifts, money, alcohol, psychological pressure, and threats to isolate and control them. The result was that the combined influence of these factors made them particularly vulnerable to systemic exploitation, especially when the authorities failed to intervene in a timely manner. As the protagonist of the series Baby Reindeer, Donny Dunn, says about sexual abuse, "That's what abuse does to you, you know? It makes you a magnet for all the weirdos in life. This open wound for them to smell.

Police and social services in Rochdale have been heavily criticized for their failings. In many cases, minors who reported abuse did not find support. Fear of racist targeting of the minority Pakistani community in England appears to have hindered the timely investigation of the case. Ultimately, it had disastrous consequences: it delayed the investigations, left the victims exposed to further abuse, and sent the message that political correctness can take precedence over child protection. But shouldn't the need to protect citizens take precedence over the need for political correctness, especially when we see before our very eyes how important timely intervention by society is? The protection of human life must always take precedence over the fear of being considered a racist society. Unfortunately, however, this doesn't always happen.

A 2014 report found that in Rochdale many children were abused for years by groups of men, primarily from Muslim communities with Pakistani origins. The report states that municipal and social services were slow to act, partly because they were concerned about being accused of racism or disrupting social cohesion. In Telford, England, an independent inquiry found that there was a "nervousness around race... almost a reluctance to investigate cases of child abuse by what was described as the 'Asian' community" due to fears of political correctness or accusations of racism.

A recent national review by Louise Casey revealed that in approximately two-thirds of cases of child sexual exploitation by "grooming gangs" in the UK, the nationality or origin of the perpetrators, who were predominantly of Pakistani descent, was not recorded because authorities feared accusations of racism or that community tensions would escalate. This avoidance led to incomplete data, delayed the understanding of crime patterns, and hindered timely action, resulting in victims' trust in the justice system being shaken. Casey is now proposing full and mandatory recording of nationality/citizenship, a national survey, and the reopening of hundreds of "cold cases."

Finally, in the world of free movement of goods and people in which we live, if we want to continue to be safe within the framework of the free movement of the globalized economy, cultural differences should not be used as a "shield" for criminal behavior. The application of the law must remain strict and equal for all, regardless of nationality or religion. At the same time, recording the nationality and religion of perpetrators helps in understanding patterns and prevention, without leading to the targeting of entire communities.

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