Rotherham taxi driver jailed for raping grooming victim

A taxi driver who raped a teenage grooming victim has been jailed for nine years.

Ashgar Bostan, 47, raped the girl twice at a flat in Wagon Road, Rotherham, when she was about 14 or 15-years-old.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the girl had been groomed by a woman who lived at the flat and was given alcohol and drugs before she was assaulted.

Bostan of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham, was convicted by a jury of two counts of rape by a majority of 11 to one.

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The court heard the victim had been "groomed and manipulated" by a woman called Shafina Ali who was living at the flat in Wagon Road.

The girl said both times she was raped by Bostan she had been given alcohol and drugs and that afterwards he had gone to talk to Ali - who died in 2009 - before leaving.

In statement read to the court on behalf of the victim she said her childhood and teenage years had been "destroyed" by Bostan.

She said: "I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had finished my education, gone on to college and become the teacher I had always dreamed of being.

"I might have had a loving family, husband and children and not have to stay awake every night unable to sleep because of the damage done to me."

Jailing Bostan, Judge Graham Reeds QC said: "Although you are not to be sentenced as the person who groomed her and offered her to men for sexual exploitation you played your part and contributed to the severe adverse effects these events had on her life."

The trial is the second to come out of the National Crime Agency's Operation Stovewood inquiry into historical sexual abuse in Rotherham.

Senior investigating Officer Paul Williamson said: "Our investigations are complex and challenging, but I am sure today's conviction will give other victims the confidence to know they will be listened to, and the individuals who exploited them in the worst imaginable way will be brought to justice."