[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-18068516

A Carlisle takeaway boss has been jailed for 15 years for attempting to recruit four girls aged between 12 and 16 into prostitution.

Azad Miah, 44, was also found guilty of running a brothel from his business and paying two teenagers for sex.

The married father-of-two was owner of the former Spice of India restaurant.

Det Insp Geoff Huddlestone of Cumbria Police, said Miah had got the sentence he deserved and that he had "committed heinous crimes".

The hearing heard that one girl was encouraged to have sex with him out of desperation for cash when she was 15, while he had a sexual relationship with the other, a heroin addict, when she was aged between 15 and 17.

The jury also heard that the Bangladeshi national had targeted "desperate and vulnerable" victims and treated them in a "cold and clinical way".

The court also heard the 12-year-old girl had complained to police three times about Miah persistently harassing her in 2008, three years before his arrest.

She said she eventually gave up complaining because nothing was done.

Judge Hughes commented: "There are lessons to be learnt by the police to be ever vigilant to detect signs of the possible exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people, and to take seriously what they say however chaotic and difficult their lives may be.

"A sad feature of this case is that there were a number of occasions when witnesses complained to police or community support officers about the defendant pestering them but their complaints were not taken further.

Judge Hughes told Miah: "Over a number of years, behind the veil of a seemingly respectable business, you preyed on the immaturity and vulnerability of young girls from troubled and chaotic home backgrounds.

"You sought to draw them into a life of drug dependency and sleazy sex for money. When you did not desire their sexual services for yourself you made them available to others.

"Your conduct corrodes the foundations of decency and respect by which all right-thinking people live their lives whatever their ethnic or religious background."

Miah got what he deserved for the despicable sexual abuse of minors - I hope the girls now receive some help from the authorities.