plymouth grooming gang Rapist

September 2024 Three men jailed for raping young girls in Plymouth Three predatory men have been sentenced for a total of 44 years in prison for raping vulnerable young girls in Plymouth.

Anthony Anantharajah, aged 35, from London, was sentenced today, Monday 30 September, to 13 years in prison with seven years on licence after being convicted of one count of rape of a female aged 16 or over.

Abalzaq Salih, 31, from Plymouth, was sentenced on Wednesday 25 September to 19 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of rape of a female aged 15 or under.

Saif Kahya, aged 32, from Liverpool, was also sentenced on Wednesday 25 September to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of one count of rape of a female aged 16 or over.

All three men had denied the charges but were found guilty at Plymouth Crown Court on Tuesday 20 August.

During the six-week trial, the court heard how the older men deliberately targeted four girls, debilitating them with alcohol at house parties for the purpose of serious sexual assault.

The abuse came to light after another girl came forward and gave key evidence to police having watched the BBC drama Three Girls which depicted the high-profile Child Sexual Exploitation investigation in Rochdale.

She reported a series of parties in Plymouth in 2017 where girls had been given alcohol and money to buy drugs, before being groomed and sexually assaulted by the men present.

Devon & Cornwall Police launched Operation Garcia in 2017, a complex and lengthy child sexual exploitation investigation which resulted in the men being charged.

The court heard that the victims were abused at three house parties held at the defendants’ addresses during 2017.

Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said the defendants were in their 20s or 30s at the time and their victims were aged between 14 and 16, creating a “power imbalance.” He said: “These events had one thing in common – they were designed by these defendants and others to exploit vulnerable young girls; to get them away from whatever family structures they had, give them money, drink, and drugs, and then to sexually assault them when their defences were down.” At the sentencing hearings, statements from the victims were read out in court.

One victim, who had been 16 when Kahya raped her, said in her statement: “I didn’t speak for a few days after I was raped.

I now know that this is because I was in shock.

I felt terrified, numb and I wasn’t able to process what had happened.

I didn’t know what to say.

I knew I had been raped but couldn’t remember the finer details because I had got so drunk on the alcohol I was given.

I wanted to end my life, so I didn’t have to face each day and live with what happened.” One of the youngest of the victims, who was 14 when she was raped, spoke of how she had stopped Salih from raping one of her friends before he had then turned on her.

She said: “I changed almost overnight from the happy, smiley, and outgoing child that everyone knew me to be.

The one who loved life.

I became angry, frustrated, secretive and broken.

I no longer smiled or laughed.

I was sad all the time and I could see no way out.

I was hiding the truth about the worst thing that could happen to me- to be raped by a stranger, an older man, at a flat where I was trying to care for two of my friends who had passed out due to the alcohol the two men had given them.” Salih had also raped another 14-year-old while she was unconscious and intoxicated.

In her statement, she said: “I am ashamed, embarrassed, frustrated, and angry.

I felt dirty and disgusted that an older man could do that to me while I was asleep.

I remember feeling lost in life, not knowing what to do.

Each day was a struggle after it happened.” She added; “He took away my childhood innocence and my opportunity to mature into a young adult without the trauma hanging over me.” The last victim statement was read out at court on Monday 30 September when Anantharjah faced sentencing.

The victim was just 16 when he raped her.

In her statement she said: “The impact on my life remains huge.

I will never recover from what Anthony did to me.

I will never forget this face, his smell, my fear, and feelings of disgust, my loss of respect for myself and my body.”