Child sex trafficker in court after Swiss arrest

A convicted child sex trafficker has appeared in court following his arrest in Switzerland.

Sharam Muhamadi helped Bawan Harwe contact girls as young as 12 on social media platform Snapchat, before they were groomed, abused and raped by Harwe, a trial at Sheffield Crown Court earlier this year heard.

Muhamadi, 21, stopped attending the trial in June before being found guilty in his absence of two counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view of exploitation, and a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Following his extradition from Switzerland, he was brought before the same court on Wednesday, where he was remanded in custody until his next hearing on 3 September.

The court had previously heard that Muhamadi and Harwe both worked in convenience stores in Doncaster and lived in a flat in Hexthorpe.

They used fake names to message the girls, who were aged between 12 and 16, and offered them drugs, e-cigarettes, money and taxi journeys to entice them to meet in person.

Six of the seven girls were given alcohol and drugs before being raped by Harwe, the trial heard.

At Sheffield Crown Court in June, Iraqi national Harwe, 28, was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment.

Muhamadi, who is from Iran, stopped attending the trial part-way through and was convicted in his absence.

He had been remanded in custody between being charged and the beginning of the trial, South Yorkshire Police said at the time, but his defence team's application for bail was then granted by the court.

The court previously heard Muhamadi was taken into the care of social services in Bradford after entering the UK as an unaccompanied asylum seeker.

He had made a claim for asylum in 2021 at the age of 16 and was granted leave to remain in the UK in 2022, to be reviewed in 2027.

Following the men's trial, Border Security Minister Alex Norris described their offending as "nothing short of "monstrous".

"Sex offenders will be denied refugee protections, and we will seek to deport them as soon as possible," Norris said.

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