A Pakistani restaurant owner in the United Kingdom faces a lengthy jail sentence after he being convicted of child sex offences against girls in Peterborough.
Mohammed Khubaib befriended girls and then ‘hooked’ them with alcohol in an attempt to make them ‘compliant’ to sexual advances.
The father-of-five allegedly ‘groomed’ vulnerable under-age girls by giving them money, gifts or cigarettes before plying them with alcohol.
Following a trial, he was found guilty of forcing a 14-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him and nine counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation involving girls aged from 12 to 15 between November 2010 and January 2013.
The 43-year-old is said to have used his restaurant as a ‘focal point’ for the offences. During his trial, the court heard Khubaib had a “persistent and almost predatory interest” in teenage girls.
During the hearing, the judge said, “You have also been convicted of no less than nine trafficking offences in relation to under-age girls who you were deliberately plying with vodka so that you could take advantage of them, knowing they craved vodka so you could exploit them sexually.”
Khubaib, who also ran a lettings agency, would drive girls to flats in his 4×4 and, once there, they would be groomed for sex by being “plied with alcohol and entertained by himself and his friends”.
The 43-year-old is the 10th person to be convicted as part of Cambridgeshire Police’s operation to prevent the sexual exploitation of children in Peterborough.
Of the 10 convicts, five are of Pakistani origin.
Further, the court was told Khubaib would buy one girl and her friends McDonald’s meals and tobacco, as well as giving her small sums of money and a £40 bunch of flowers for her 15th birthday.
He told the girl he wanted her to be his wife, saying he would “choose her over everyone else”, while he told another 15-year-old she had beautiful eyes, the jury was told.
Khubaib allegedly offered another girl £60, telling her: ‘You make me happy, I’ll give you money.’
Two weeks later, he allegedly increased the offer to £90. The girl refused.
However, Khubaib told police his association with all of the girls was innocent and he had not acted in any improper way, denying any sexual contact with the girl he is said to have raped.
