A man who was the 50th person to be convicted as part of the investigation into the Rotherham grooming scandal has been jailed for 20 years.

Riyasth Hussain, 45, from Rotherham, twice raped a girl aged about 13 in the early 2000s and a second victim in her 20s in 2008.

He was convicted of three counts of rape as part of Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency’s largest-ever investigation into historic sexual abuse.

The operation examines the systematic sexual abuse of children in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Hussain drove the 13-year-old to an abandoned industrial estate and raped her after stopping to offer help when she was being verbally abused on a street in Rotherham.

Hussain abused the girl a second time after driving to a field and raping her inside his car.

Prosecutor Liz Fell said: “She was living in the care system and had been groomed and sexually exploited by many other men, when Hussain targeted her. Hussain took her in his car to secluded locations to rape her on two separate occasions.”

The girl, who is now in her 30s, told Hussain in court: “When you met me, I was just a fragile, vulnerable little girl who you could easily abuse.

“Today, I am a woman with a voice, and my only goal is to seek justice.

“It was over 20 years ago when you started to rape me. 11 years ago I started me fight for justice, today I got that!”

A second woman was raped when she was in her 20s in 2008.

While staying at a friend’s home, a man that she did not know entered her room and raped her in front of a group of others.

The investigators were able to identify the stranger as Hussain.

In a statement, the woman said: “My thoughts freeze whenever I think of his name. I try not to think of him at all, but that never happens, he comes into my mind every day, this is out of my control.

“I can’t concentrate on my day or my thoughts and I am constantly distracted with the living nightmare of what he did to me.

“My mind takes me back to when he was controlling me and the horrible things he did to me. I feel so scared, even now.”

Senior investigator Alan Hastings said: “Two survivors described with humbling eloquence and dignity the great suffering that they have experienced every day since Riyasth Hussain raped them.

“Despite the profoundly traumatic impact of Hussain’s crimes, both women remained determined to support the investigation.”

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