'Predatory' men groomed and exploited teenage girl

News imageHumberside Police A composite message of three men, taken from police custody photos. They all have dark hair and are staring into the camera.Humberside Police
Rafiullah Naseri, Amjid Akakhail and Hamdulluh Hamdadd were jailed at Hull Crown Court

Three men convicted of grooming and sexually exploiting a vulnerable teenage girl jeered and swore at the victim as they were jailed.

Hamdulluh Hamdadd, 24, and Rafiullah Naseri, 21, both of Hull, were found guilty of child sexual exploitation and paying for the sexual services of a child, while Amjid Akakhail, 22, of Wakefield, was found guilty of paying for sexual services of a child following a trial at Hull Crown Court.

Hamdadd and Naseri were each sentenced to eight years in prison and Akakhail to four years in prison.

Det Insp Tim Hudson, of Humberside Police, said it was a "harrowing example of grooming and manipulatively controlled predatory behaviour".

In mitigation, the defendant's counsel asked the judge to take into account the ages of the accused - all under 25 - and background, with all three men arriving in the UK as asylum seekers.

Humberside Police said all three men were Afghan nationals.

The court heard how the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 16 when she met Hamdadd in a shop in Hull, and was 17 when the alleged offences took place between September and December 2025.

Judge Alex Menary said the girl, who he described as a "vulnerable runaway teen", was known to regularly go missing - and said she was with the men at the times she had disappeared.

He said she "did not know how to break the cycle" of the grooming, which gave her an escape from the "unhappy" setting she was living in and they had "used the victim in a most disparaging and degrading way".

The court heard how Hamdadd and Naseri would ply the girl with "alcohol and other drugs" in order to get her to stay with the men, where they would solicit her for sex with other men, including Akakhail.

As the men were led out of the dock, Hamdadd leaned across and made rude gestures and shouted at the victim, who was sitting in the public gallery.

Naseri smiled and laughed throughout the hearing, and all three men stared intently at the victim throughout the proceedings.

News imageA man in a suit stands outside Hull Crown Court, a large red brick building, with microphones in the foreground.
Det Insp Tim Hudson says the victim had shown "incredible courage and bravery" in coming forward

Speaking outside court, Hudson said: "This case represents a harrowing example of grooming and manipulatively controlled predatory behaviour by these three men who deliberately targeted a young child.

"They show no consideration for her age, vulnerabilities, nor any remorse for how their actions will affect her throughout her life."

Both the police and the judge thanked the victim for her "bravery and willingness" to provide evidence.

The judge thanked officers after a "difficult investigation", with large amounts of evidence compiled, much of which was translated from messages and voice notes shared between the men in the Pashto language.

Hamdadd pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to possessing an extreme pornographic image and making an indecent photograph of a child.

Akakhail pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to making an indecent photograph of a child.

All three men were given lifetime restraining orders, placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely, and given sexual harm prevention orders for life.

Download the BBC News app from the App Storefor iPhone and iPad orGoogle Play for Android devices