A woman has been jailed for six years for her part in a horrific catalogue of sexual offenses against more than 100 under-age girls in the north east of England.
Carolann Gallon, 22, helped the men by luring the girls to house parties in Newcastle.
Operation Shelter: How Carolann Gallon became a unique challenge for detectives probing sex abuse gang https://t.co/I8ZB4row4s
— Sophie Doughty (@Sophie_Doughty) 8 September 2017
The girls were plied with drink and drugs and forced to have sex.
Seventeen men have been jailed for a total of 174 years with another defendant due to be sentenced next week.
"These offenders targeted these women because of their vulnerabilities. They hugely underestimated their strength and determination to seek justice, they thought no one would believe them," said Detective Superintendent Steve Barron.
Abused Becomes the Abuser
On Friday, September 8, Gallon's lawyer, Uzma Khan, said she had suffered neglect at the hands of her own parents and had been the victim of domestic violence and abusive relationships.
"It is a classic example of the abused becoming the abuser and the groomed becoming the groomer. She feels she has also been passed round and can appreciate what these girls have had to endure," said Miss Khan.
"She was a victim and she should have been treated like one. They manipulated her. She didn't know she was doing anything wrong. I want people to know she's not the person she's been made out to be," her father, Jimmy Gallon, told the local Chronicle newspaper.
Gallon was interviewed by police and denied forcing the girls into having sex.
"They're not kids, they've got their own mind," she told police.
Justice: Over 180 years for 17 offenders convicted as part of Operation Shelter. More information here: https://t.co/orPPCVR3xQ pic.twitter.com/5bEv67siYL
— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) 8 September 2017
But Newcastle Crown Court heard the girls were all underage and were only 13.
Victim impact statements read to the court described the psychological damage they had suffered and neighbors of the houses in Newcastle's deprived West End area said they too had been "put through hell."
The longest sentence was handed out to Abdulhamid Minoyee, 34, who was jailed for 15 years for raping a woman with learning difficulties, sexual assault, and the supply of drugs.
'Britain Has a Problem'
Operation Shelter, as it was known, was the latest in a series of prosecutions of networks of men, often from an Asian Muslim background, who deliberately targeted white girls.
The issue is extremely sensitive politically and in August, Labour MP Sarah Champion was forced to resign from her role as Shadow Equalities Minister after she wrote in an article in The Sun newspaper that "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping white girls."
Even the pets in #Rotherham are offering to deliver leaflets for @UKLabour TY to all our volunteers, 2 feet or 4! pic.twitter.com/ZP5ET6uQNP
— Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) May 13, 2017
Ms. Champion is the MP for Rotherham, one of the English towns which saw a major prosecution of local Asian sex offenders.
The Newcastle case also grabbed headlines recently when it emerged that Northumbria Police had paid £10,000 (US$13,000) to a child rapist.
The man, known only as XY for legal reasons, was paid to act as an informant, but he fell out with his police handler and made a series of damning allegations, including claims he had been told to plant drugs and take vulnerable girls to parties.
