The Transcripts

Described by witnesses as a "pack of animals" who operated under the perception that they "ruled Rotherham," brothers Arshid, Basharat, and Bannaras Hussain orchestrated a brutal, decades-long campaign of sexual exploitation against vulnerable teenage girls that culminated in lengthy prison sentences for the family and their associates. Operating from the late 1980s into the early 2000s, the brothers—known locally as "Mad Ash," "Bash," and "Bono"—leveraged a fearsome reputation for violence to groom and control victims as young as 11, systematically subjecting them to rape and trafficking them to other men as "payment" for debts. This abuse was facilitated by a wider network including their uncle, Qurban Ali, and associate Karen MacGregor, who lured runaways to her "Hansel and Gretel" style home with promises of refuge, only to imprison them and force them into prostitution to "earn their keep". While the ringleader Arshid received 35 years and his brothers 25 and 19 years respectively for causing harm of "unimaginable proportions," the court distinguished the culpability of co-defendant Shelley Davies; unlike the core gang members, she received a suspended sentence after the judge recognized that she, too, was a victim of trafficking who had been exploited by the group.