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Message: [QUOTE="Nehanda, post: 27115, member: 2262"] Two men went to jail for raping teenage girls a judge called "extremely vulnerable." These criminals, Romulad Stefan Houphouet, 37, and Absolom Sigiyo, 41, heard their sentences after a Sheffield court found them guilty of many sexual crimes. The trial lasted five weeks and revealed how these men attacked two teenagers many times each week over several months in Rotherham more than ten years ago. The attackers belonged to a group that called these young victims "fresh meat" - words the judge labeled "particularly degrading." Judge Sarah Wright gave Houphouet, from Ivory Coast, twenty years behind bars. Sigiyo, from Zimbabwe, received eighteen years and six months. She told both men they caused terrible mental damage to these girls, who still suffer today. The victims watched this sentencing through video link as the judge praised their amazing courage for telling police and jurors what happened to them. These teenagers lived in a children's home when these awful things happened. The court learned how these men carefully planned their attacks. They knew exactly what they were doing when they targeted these girls. The teenagers often ran away from their care homes and had problems trusting adults because of their difficult backgrounds. The attackers gave them alcohol and cigarettes, making them feel special at first before hurting them. Judge Wright explained this pattern as "cynical and manipulative behavior designed to achieve a particular sexual objective." Houphouet first met these girls back in 2011 when he was 24 years old. He approached them downtown and invited them to a party. He asked to speak privately with one girl, taking her into an alley where he raped her. After this attack, he brought both teenagers to Sigiyo's house, where other men waited. At this first party, Houphouet asked one victim to perform a lap dance. The girls drank alcohol there, and when one became sick in the bathroom, Houphouet raped her again in a bedroom. From that day forward, these men regularly found the girls downtown and pressured them to visit Sigiyo's home. The abuse continued for about a year at this location and another place where Sigiyo later lived. During one incident, Houphouet violently raped a girl after discovering her with another man. The judge said he "clearly regarded her as property to do with as he liked." These convictions come from Operation Stovewood, the largest investigation ever conducted by British law enforcement into sexual crimes against children. The National Crime Agency started this operation after the Jay Report discovered at least 1,400 girls suffered abuse from gangs between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham. Investigators identified more than 1,100 child victims during this period, almost all girls. Kath Blain from the agency praised the incredible bravery these women showed by reporting what happened. Martin McRobb from the Crown Prosecution Service said these men deliberately targeted vulnerable young girls they could manipulate with alcohol and gifts just to sexually exploit them repeatedly. A third man connected to these crimes, Jacek Brzozowski from Poland, has already admitted to having illegal sexual activity with a child. The court will sentence him on April 14. The victims, adults today, continue facing the trauma caused by these terrible sexual crimes committed against them during their youth. The judge acknowledged that nothing can ever give back what these attackers stole from them, saying, "The childhood and adolescence of each of these complainants can never be reclaimed." [/QUOTE]

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