'Dangerous predator' handed additional sentence

A member of a grooming gang who is serving a lengthy sentence for sexually abusing young girls has been convicted of further offending.

Wiqas Mahmud was jailed for 15 years in 2018 and handed an additional sentence of six years and three months in 2023.

At Leeds Crown Court on Thursday, the 44-year-old was sentenced to five years and nine months after itting six further sex offences, including rape and sexual.

Mahmud, formerly of Banks Crescent, Huddersfield, was told the sentence would run consecutively to his existing jail term.

According to West Yorkshire Police, the latest offences were committed against two girls, aged 13 and 14, in Huddersfield between 2001 and 2006.

The crimes were reported to police in 2020 and investigated as part of Kirklees Police's series of long running specialist investigations into non-recent child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Det Ch Insp Oliver Coates said: "Mahmud is without doubt an absolute danger to young females.

"It was welcome to see the court determine he must serve his latest sentence after the lengthy combined sentence he is currently in prison for, and I hope this further conviction has been of some comfort to his victims."

Urging other victims of sexual offences to come forward he said: "Sexual predators such as Mahmud have only been snared through the courage of victims coming forward and I want to thank both women in this case.

"By reporting this horrendous abuse and ing the trial process, they and other women in these cases, have played a significant role in making communities safer by ensuring men such as Mahmud are off our streets."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.