Ivorian And Zimbabwean Nationals Imprisoned For Total Of Nearly 40 Years For Grooming And Raping Vulnerable Teenage Girls In The UK

Two Rotherham rapists found guilty of grooming and attacking vulnerable teenage girls in the UK have been sentenced to a total of nearly 40 years imprisonment.

Ivorian national, Romulad Stefan Houphouet, 37, and Zimbabwean Absolom Sigiyo, 41, groomed and raped girls who were 'vulnerable in the extreme'.

The men were jailed at Sheffield Crown Court for 20 years and 18-and-a-half years respectively with a judge saying they inflicted 'severe psychological harm'.

During a five-week trial, the court was told how the girls were sexually assaulted several times a week over a period of six months in the South Yorkshire town by a gang of men who referred to them as 'fresh meat'.

They plied the girls with alcohol and cigarettes at house parties so they could carry out the abuse.

Senior investigating officer Kath Blain described the case as one of the most harrowing she had ever investigated.

A third defendant, Jacek Brzozowski, 35, was cleared of the one charge he was facing in the trial, of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, but he admitted a charge of penetrative sexual activity with a child earlier this year.

Polish national Brzozowski, of Rawmarsh, Rotherham, was bailed and will be sentenced on April 14.

Judge Sarah Wright today told Houphouet, of Burngreave in Sheffield, and Sigiyo, of Catcliffe in Rotherham, the girls are suffering to this day.

Judge Wright told the complainants, who watched the sentencing hearing on a video link, they had shown 'bravery beyond measure' by reporting the abuse and telling the jury what happened to them when they were vulnerable girls living in a children's home.

On Monday, Houphouet and Sigiyo were found guilty of a number of offences including rape.

When the trial opened last month, prosecutor Gordon Stables told a jury both the complainants were living in a children's home when they were befriended by the defendants 'and also other associates'.

Mr. Stables said these were 'all older men in their twenties, or thereabouts, whose sole intention was to engage in penetrative sexual activity with them, knowing they were under the age of consent'.

The prosecutor said: 'The defendants gained the girls' trust and confidence by plying them with alcohol and giving them cigarettes at house parties, and offering them flirtatious attention.'

He said: 'Both girls became conditioned to having regular sexual intercourse with the same male.'

Mr Stables said: 'The clear pre-meditated intention was to ensure that the girls entered into and remained in a state of compliance so that they would surrender easily and offer no resistance to the sexual advances and activity that would inevitably follow.

'Psychologically, the girls were made to feel that sexual activity was how they repaid the debt they owed the defendants for the provision of alcohol and tobacco.

'Once the males were sexually satisfied, however, the girls were treated as having served their purpose - at least temporarily - and they were often then ignored and expected to make their own way home.

'In this way, (the girls) were sexually groomed within an environment of dependency.'

He said the men referred to them as 'fresh meat'.

Mr. Stables explained how Houphouet befriended the two girls in Rotherham town centre one evening more than 10 years ago and raped one of them in an alleyway that night.

He said Houphouet took both girls the short distance to a house in the town and introduced them to Sigiyo ‘and other males who were undoubtedly present.’

It became clear from the outset that Houphouet had picked one of the girls ‘as his victim’ and Sigiyo had chosen the other, Mr Stables told the jury.