Telford paedophile raped teenage student during campaign of 'pressure'

Mohammed Ali Sultan had bullied the immature 18-year-old victim into committing sex acts on him in her flat almost eight years ago.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday Judge Peter Barrie said that in 2007 Ali Sultan had been the leader of a group of local young men who saw the teenager as being vulnerable.

"You pestered her persistently and, as a result of that relentless pressure, she submitted to your demands," he said.

He said the aggravating features included a degree of humiliation and upset leaving the victim with lasting psychological harm and the repeated conduct by the defendant over a number of weeks.

Ali Sultan, now aged 28, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, had denied two charges of rape and one of attempted rape, but was convicted by a jury following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court last month.

Judge Barrie said the sentence involved an immediate period of six years in custody and an extended licence period of five years.

He said an assessment that Ali Sultan posed a high risk of causing further harm to young women from his previous sentence remained.

Judge Barrie said a Sexual Offences Prevention Order would also continue and Ali Sultan remains on the sex offenders' register for life.

At the time of his trial in March Ali Sultan had been released on licence from the seven year sentence imposed in November, 2012, for having illegal sex with two other Telford girls, one who was only 13, and controlling child prostitution involving a third girl, in 2008 and 2009.

Ali Sultan was one of seven men sentenced as a result of Operation Chalice, a police investigation into child sexual grooming and exploitation by Asian men in the Telford area.

The rape victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – initially went to police in June 2010, but the inquiry was put on hold because of Ali Sultan's involvement in the Chalice case, and she was interviewed again in November, 2012.

Mr Timothy Harrington, prosecuting, said that in an impact statement the young woman said the incidents had changed her plans for her life and education and she had fled from the hostel in Wellington where she had been abused.

Ms Monica Stevenson, for Ali Sultan, said that on the jury's verdict this was a serious course of conduct committed when he was just 20 years old.

She said that Ali Sultan had faced difficulties within the prison system and, as a result of publicity surrounding the Chalice case, he had been subject to attacks from inmates.

He had been relocated to a higher category prison which did not allow him to be involved in any of the normal programmes available to prisoners.