London:
A 59-year-old Pakistani, ringleader of an Asian sex gang that preyed on white schoolgirls, has been convicted by a British court of raping a minor Asian girl 30 times in 10 years.
Shabir Ahmed, a father of four, was the leader of the gang of nine Muslim criminals who were jailed last month for a total of 77 years, The Sun reported.
He alone was sentenced to 19 years, but was not identified at that time fearing that jury would be swayed when he was hauled into the dock.
Six men and six women in the jury included two Asians. All reporting restrictions were later lifted by Judge Mushtaq Khokhar at the Manchester Crown Court.
It has now been revealed that during that trial, the leader of the gang from Rochdale put a curse on the court and everyone in it.
He told the jury: "We were all innocent. No Pakistani went knocking on doors saying, 'Have you got any young girls? Can we have sex with them?'"
The judge warned him that he was destroying his own protective legal shield.
Ahmed, a former Oldham council worker, said there was "nothing I or my fellow convicted people have to fear".
He told the two policemen flanking him, "I hope you rot in hell like me".
The traumatised Asian girl told the court Ahmed first raped her when she was so small that she used a chair to reach a sink. He continued to rape her for 10 years.
Ahmed will be sentenced next month.