Rotherham grooming gang rapist who tried to escape justice by fleeing to Pakistan could be freed early after a bid to move to an open prison

A notorious grooming gang rapist could who tried to escape justice by feeling to Pakistan could be freed early after he has made a bid to move to an open prison.

Basharat Hussain was part of a grooming gang who were jailed in 2017 for the sexual abuse of girls in Rotherham.

Among the victims was Sammy Woodhouse, whose brave evidence first helped to expose the scandal.

Basharat Hussain was sentenced to 25 years behind bars after being found guilty of 15 charges, including rape and abduction. 

He was also found guilty of an additional indecent assault and received a seven-year sentence which he is serving concurrently.

Hussain’s brother, and the ringleader, Arshid Hussain was imprisoned for 35 years, brother Banaras Hussain, 44, was handed 19 years and their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, was jailed for 10 years. 

Basharat is now being considered for a move to an open prison as he is three years away from his conditional release date, The Sun reported.

Including time spent on remand, he will have served more than half of his sentence, therefore making him eligible for release.

Basharat Hussain was sentenced to 25 years behind bars after being found guilty of 15 charges, including rape and abduction.

Victim Sammy Woodhouse bravely gave evidence against her abusers after years of abuse by Rotherham grooming gang leader Ash Hussain 

Sammy Woodhouse has blasted the move as ‘disgusting’. 

Basharat and his brothers were part of a vile gang that groomed and raped children for nearly 20 years.

Banaras Hussain was released early in December 2024, serving just nine years of a 19 year sentence.

Banaras was sentenced in 2016 after admitting 10 charges including rape, indecent assault and actual bodily harm, with some of his victims being as young as 11.

It emerged during his trial that Banaras, who is also a convicted drug dealer, was once caught in a police car park with one of his victims while she was performing a sex act on him – but that officers simply drove off. 

Sammy Woodhouse, a victim of the grooming gang previously described him as ‘one of the most dangerous men in the country’.

Victim turned campaigner Sammy, who gave evidence against all three men, hit out at the potential prison move. 

‘I received a message from a victim liaison officer asking for my views on Bash being moved to an open prison, that’s how I found out about it,’ she told The Sun.

She bravely waived her anonymity as a rape victim to expose the paedophile gang

Brothers Ash Hussain (left), Banaras (centre) and Basharat were all jailed for their vile crimes

‘It’s absolutely insane – he’s only served eight years of a 25 year sentence. He should serve his whole sentence or what’s the point of giving it out?

Sammy said she met Basharat before his brother Ash, who was her main abuser.

She said Basharat had kissed her and tried to groom her, but she had managed to escape. Although some of her friends did become victims of Basharat.

She added: ‘The thing with Bash is that before the trial he fled to Pakistan and tried to force one of the main witnesses against him to go with him. They had to force him to return for the trial.’

Sammy, 39, was sexually abused as a 14-year-old by ringleader Arshid ‘Ash’ Hussain and bravely waived her anonymity as a rape victim to expose the paedophile gang.

She was subjected to horrendous abuse including rape, assaults and coercion with threats to kill her family at the hands of Hussain, and in 1999 at the age of 15, Sammy fell pregnant with the 25-year-old’s baby. 

Opening up about her experience on Crime+Investigation programme Survivors in 2021, she told how she was ‘completely out of her depth’ as a teenager and had no idea how ‘dangerous’ Hussain would be.

‘I was pretty much his sex doll; he was an absolute monster. I just felt like a dead body on a slab in a morgue’, Sammy said. 

Sammy, pictured at 15, was sexually abused as a teen by ringleader Arshid ‘Ash’ Hussain and gave birth to his child

Sammy told how she was ‘completely out of her depth’ as a teenager and had no idea how ‘dangerous’ Hussain would be

Sammy said when the trial ended she had believed the men would spend most of their lives in prison. Now having been told they may be getting out soon, she has asked ‘what was it all for?’

She even said that had the case not exposed grooming gangs across the country, if she could go back in time, she would not have given evidence against the men. 

On the government’s websites Category D or open prisons, where Basharat is likely to be moved, are described as having ‘minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes’.

Sammy said the prosepct of knowing Basharat will likely be allowed in and out of open prison makes her feel unsafe.

She will have to tell her abusers where she is, but they will not be allowed to know where they are living.

This is because of conditions of a restraining order which means the brothers are not allowed to visit or contact Sammy. However this requires the men to know where Sammy lives and contact details of her family – including her grandchildren. 

Sammy has been campaigning against grooming for years and is currently fighting for children born of rape to be considered victims of crime in the eyes of the law.

She says she has recently had family members of her abusers contacting her family for pictures of her grandson.

How Sammy Woodhouse has fought to protect others from enduring abuse  

Sammy Woodhouse grew up in Rotherham and was groomed by child sex gang leader Arshid Hussain when she was 14 years old.

She was subjected to horrendous abuse including rape and assaults and Hussain also coerced her by threatening to kill her family.

He also forced her to rob a post office aged 15 and when police raided Hussain’s home later that year they found her in bed with him but failed to arrest him and charged her with possessing a baton.

Hussain also forced her to fight another girl a few months later, for which Ms Woodhouse was later charged with assault.

She missed much of her education and worked as a stripper and model. She eventually had a child by Hussain but fled to keep him away from his family.

After years of abuse she approached The Times anonymously with her claims, leading to the Jay Inquiry which exposed the Rotherham gang and led to the discovery of more than 1,400 victims between 1997 and 2013. Hussain was eventually jailed for 35 years.

Ms Woodhouse was a teenager when she was groomed by her rapist Arshid Hussain known as ‘Mad Ash’

Ms Woodhouse waived her anonymity on the BBC in 2017.

She has been leading campaigns to change the laws around child sex abuse victims, particularly supporting a bill named after her, Sammy’s Law, that would pardon child sex abuse victims who are coerced into committing crimes.    

The bill was supported by Vera Baird, the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, by Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, by Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, and by Simon Bailey, the Chief Constable of the Norfolk Constabulary, among several other chief constables and crime commissioners.

Last year she slammed Rotherham Council for trying to help Hussain get in contact with the son he fathered by rape.

She said the council should have opposed taking the step to give Hussain access as she fights for a change in the law to deny rapists access to children they have fathered in sickening attacks.

Sammy Woodhouse 

‘They should’ve fought for that child,’ she said. ‘What they’ve done is hand my son over on a plate to a rapist.’

Ms Woodhouse conducts speaking events at schools and elsewhere, explaining to teenagers, the police and social workers how to recognise that someone is being groomed.

She also wrote a book, Just a Child: Britain’s Biggest Child Abuse Scandal Exposed, which was released in April 2018.

In November 2018, over the first three days, more than three hundred thousand people signed a petition by Woodhouse and Labour MP Louise Haigh, which called for the amendment of the Children Act 1989 to ‘ban any male with a child conceived by rape from applying for access/rights’.

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