Vile duo jailed for abducting and sexually assaulting 11-year-old girl in Birmingham

Ali and Sharif were convicted of detaining a child after keeping them under unlawful control and, in addition, Ali was convicted of assault by touching a child under the age of 13.

The court heard how Sharif, of St Margaret’s Road in Ward End, Birmingham, met the girl in Birmingham after she ran away from home.

Prosecutor Usha Shergill told the men’s sentencing hearing that the victim, who they did not know, had left her home in the early hours without notifying anyone and had encountered Sharif near a railway station in east Birmingham.

Sharif suggested that the girl should go to a house with him, where she declined an offer to take cocaine, and Ali, of Foxton Road, Alum Rock, asked her "invasive" sexual questions and assaulted her.

In a victim personal statement read to the court by Ms Shergill, the girl, who cannot be identified, said: "I thought the man wanted to help me but what happened changed me forever."

She also said he felt like she was being punished, found it difficult to trust any adult and suffered "nightmares and flashbacks" in which she could picture the two men.

Before sentencing, defence barristers Simon Burch and Simon Williams accepted the defendants had used illegal drugs.

Mr Williams said Ali had "experienced trauma" in Somalia, which had affected his mental health, and had turned to alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism.

“He is currently undertaking a personal social development course [in prison]. In short, he wants to become a better person," Mr Williams said.

Making representations by videolink, Mr Burch said there was no evidence that Sharif, who also appeared by videolink, from HMP Hewell in Worcestershire, had supplied the victim with drugs.

The court heard that Sharif had experienced "various tragedies" including the deaths of his wife and uncle.

Passing sentence and rejecting Mr Burch’s suggestion that Sharif had a "benevolent motivation" towards the victim, Judge Henderson accepted both defendants had experienced significant difficulties in their lives.

He said of Sharif: “He was the person that first made contact. He was therefore the driving force in the abduction.

“She [the complainant] was deliberately isolated for a significant length of time.”

Sharif was jailed for five years for child abduction.

Ali was sentenced to seven years on a concurrent jail sentence after being found guilty of both detaining a child after keeping them under unlawful control and assault by touching a child under the age of 13.

As well as the custodial sentence, Ali will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Both men will be subject to restraining orders.