Police missed chances to catch takeaway owner who groomed girls as young as 12 for sex after victims' complaints went unheard

• Judge said police needed to be vigilant to detect abuse of vulnerable people and to take their complaints seriously
  
• Azad Miah, 44, hounded girls to have sex for money while running a brothel
  
• The married father-of-four was also found guilty of paying for the sexual services of two teenage girls
• Police said: 'We are not saying that we have not made mistakes, we just did not have the full picture at that time'
• Detectives investigating possible links to child sex ring gang in Rochdale who were jailed last week
• Offender hid 'behind the veil of a seemingly respectable business' to prey on immature and vulnerable girls

By Paul Sims for MailOnline

Published: 12:24 EST, 14 May 2012 | Updated: 13:53 EST, 15 May 2012

Guilty: Azad Miah, 44, hounded girls to have sex for money while running a brothel from his premises in Carlisle

Police missed chances to bring a takeaway owner to justice earlier for a string of sexual offences against under-age girls, a judge said today.

Several witnesses, including a 12-year-old girl, complained about Azad Miah pestering them for sex in exchange for money but no action was taken and he continued his "corrupting and degrading" sexual exploitation for several years.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said Cumbria Constabulary needed to learn lessons and be 'ever vigilant' to detect signs of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people and to take seriously what they say 'however chaotic their lives may be'.

Miah, a 44-year-old Bangladeshi, was jailed today for 15 years for paying under-age girls for sex, inciting others to become child prostitutes and running a brothel at his former Spice of India establishment in Carlisle city centre.

The married father-of-four paid for the sexual services of two teenagers who were introduced to him by the same woman.

One of those girls was encouraged to have sex with him out of desperation for cash when she was 15, while he had a sexual relationship with the other, a heroin addict, when she was aged between 15 and 17.

A jury also found him guilty yesterday of inciting three other girls.

Many of the girls in the case were addicted to drugs or came from troubled backgrounds. Some were known to local care authorities.

Prostitutes at his brothel were also asked to find young girls, who he described as 'fresh meat'.

The court heard that money would change hands at the shop in Botchergate where Miah's Bangladeshi employees and workers from other takeaways in the city would pay for sex.

The judge told Miah he hid 'behind the veil of a seemingly respectable business' to prey on immature and vulnerable girls who he sought to draw into 'a life of drug dependency and sleazy sex for money'.

His trial at Carlisle Crown Court heard his youngest victim, the 12-year-old, complained to police on three occasions about him persistently harassing her in 2008, three years before his arrest.

Seedy: Miah ran a makeshift brothel in a bedroom above his Spice of India takeaway in Botchergate, Carlisle

She said she gave up complaining because nothing was done.

In the wake of Miah's arrest in March 2011, she was asked at the start of her police interview if she knew why she was being questioned.

She replied: 'Because of something that happened three years ago and now youse have finally decided to do summat about it.'

She was bombarded with up to 50 texts a day from Miah, who demanded sex. He told her that 'in his country it didn't matter about age'.

Police finally intervened in December 2010 when one of the other girls he encouraged to be a prostitute spoke about him at a drop-in centre for youngsters with drug and alcohol problems.

Jailed: The Rochdale child sex gang who were jailed last week. Police are investigating Carlisle takeaway boss Azad Miah's possible links to the group. Pictured (top row left to right) Abdul Rauf, Hamid Safi, Mohammed Sajid and Abdul Aziz; (bottom row left to right) Abdul Qayyum, Adil Khan, Mohammed Amin and Kabeer Hassan

Miah, who ran a string of takeaways, lived in the town for a decade until he was 24-years-old but regularly returned to the area on bail after he was first arrested.

Warnings: Judge Peter Hughes said lessons needed to be learned across society after Miah's jailing

The senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Geoff Huddleston, acknowledged that complaints had been made previously but the 'true picture' of what was happening was not disclosed until the end of 2010 onwards.

Detective Inspector Geoff Huddleston said: ‘We know that he travelled down to the area after his arrest on police bail, though he has been based in Cumbria for the past 20 years.

‘We will look at the Rochdale case and speak to the officers involved to see if there are any links to this case.’

Up to 30 potential victims of Miah were approached by detectives as part of their investigation but only seven girls were prepared to give evidence in court.

Miah was cleared of inciting two of the girls to become prostitutes. It was revealed that two other men were arrested as part of the investigation on suspicion of committing sexual assaults against teenage girls.

A file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service who advised that no further action could be taken, police said.

Sentencing Miah to nine years for four counts of paying for the sexual services of a child between 2006 and 2009, one year for keeping a brothel between 2005 and 2011 and five years for five counts of inciting child prostitution, Judge Hughes said lessons needed to be learned across society.

He said: 'This case reveals the seedier side of life in our town and city centres and what can happen to vulnerable and immature girls.

'There are lessons for those responsible for safeguarding vulnerable teenagers from deprived backgrounds and without appropriate parental care and guidance.

'There are lessons to be learnt by the police to be ever vigilant to detect signs of the possible exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people, and to take seriously what they say however chaotic and difficult their lives may be.

'A sad feature of this case is that there were a number of occasions when witnesses complained to police or community support officers about the defendant pestering them but their complaints were not taken further.

'As a result, opportunities were missed.

'And there are lessons for all us as individuals and members of charities and voluntary groups to take the problem seriously.'

Following sentencing, Detective Inspector Huddleston said: 'We acknowledge that some of the victims did make contact with police about concerns over employees at the Spice of India takeaway before the full police investigation was launched.

'However, the information given to police was not clear so the true picture of what was happening was not disclosed.

'We will take on board all of the comments that the judge made in court today and as part of our standard practice we will review our investigation and ensure that we identify any lessons that need to be learned.

'We are not saying that we have not made mistakes, we just did not have the full picture at that time.

'It was a 500-piece jigsaw of which we only had two or three pieces.'

The state of many care homes has been under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of last week's verdict finding nine men guilty of grooming white girls for sex.

Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said there are thousands of ‘hidden victims’ of child sexual exploitation who are still being let down by the system.

‘Cases are dropped because of insufficient evidence or an over reliance of victims to act as witnesses and there seems to be only partial understanding of child sexual exploitation within the criminal justice system,’ she said.

Strong words: Azad Miah, targeted his victims in what the prosecution at Carlisle Crown Court described as a 'cold, clinical exploitation of the desperate and vulnerable'

‘We need to see drastic changes to make sure the abusers who control such vulnerable children for sex and personal gain do not get away with it.’ Across the UK, Barnardo’s said it worked intensively with 1,200 victims or young people at risk of sexual exploitation last year.

Of 137 police investigations the children’s charity knew about involving their ‘service users’, only 24 resulted in convictions.

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