Members of a sex gang are set to face jail after exploiting and trafficking vulnerable women and girls as young as 13.
Palla Pour, 25, and Ribas Asad, 29, were found guilty of sex offences involving children while Soran Azizi, 28, was convicted of trafficking in Newcastle.
Saman Obaid, 26, was convicted of four offences of supplying controlled drugs.
Palla Pour, 25, was found guilty of sex offences involving children. He is pictured outside Newcastle Crown Court last month (left and right)
Ribas Asad, 29, was also found guilty of child sex offences. He is pictured leaving Newcastle Crown Court last month
During a month-long trial, Newcastle Crown Court heard that young and ‘naive’ victims, aged as young as 13, were lured to parties and gatherings at houses and flats, where alcohol and drugs were freely available, and were expected to provide sexual favours and services in return.
The jury heard some of the sexual acts were carried out by the victims, who were ‘in thrall’ to their abusers, some consensually, in return for ‘rewards’ of drink and drugs.
But prosecutor Anne Richardson told the court the victims were ‘forced’ at other times or were so intoxicated they were unable to consent to what happened to them.
Miss Richardson said the women and girls were treated as ‘commodities’, passed around various men and sometimes believed they were in relationships with their abusers.
She told jurors at the start of the trial: ‘The case involves allegations of sexual exploitation and trafficking of young women and girls in the North East.
Soran Azizi, 28, was convicted of trafficking in Newcastle. He is pictured (left) leaving court last month
Saman Obaid, 26, was convicted of four offences of supplying controlled drugs. He is pictured leaving court last month
‘The alleged offences occurred over a number of years, namely between 2007 and 2014 and those who makes these allegations are, for the most part, immature and vulnerable people.
‘It is the Crown’s case that these personality traits were exploited by the defendants and that each of the young women were lured to various houses and flats where drugs and/or alcohol were made freely available to them.
‘It is perhaps easy to make assumptions about the complainants based on their relative youth and their somewhat unusual lifestyles, but in due course, when you have heard all the evidence, you may consider that they were young, naive women, who were in the thrall to and under the control of these, for the most part, older and more worldly wise defendants.
‘It is not always apparent to someone that what they are engaged in is in fact abusive and the law exists to protect those who cannot or do not want to protect themselves.
During a month-long trial, Newcastle Crown Court heard that young and ‘naive’ victims, aged as young as 13, were lured to parties and gatherings at houses and flats, where alcohol and drugs were freely available, and were expected to provide sexual favours and services in return. Pictured left is Pour and right is Asad
‘In return, the Crown would say, these complainants were expected and encouraged to provide sexual favours and services, not because they wanted to do so, or through their own free and unencumbered will, but because they were beholden and in thrall to these men.’
Miss Richardson said the alleged victims in the case were not all connected but all, to some extent, had experienced a difficult upbringing.
She added; ‘All of them, on the Crown’s case, were vulnerable people who were exploited by these defendants.
‘On many occasions the sexual acts they performed with some of the these defendants were entered into on a consensual basis, due to the lure and promise of reward in the form of drink and/or alcohol.
‘The Crown suggests this was because they felt compelled to return to the defendant’s houses due to their addiction to alcohol and drugs and the hold the men had over them.
Pictured is Obaid, who was cleared of sexual activity with a child, paying for the sexual services of a child and conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the prostitution of a child
‘Other times, the sexual acts were forced upon them, without their consent, and on still further occasions these complainants were so intoxicated with drink and/or drugs that they were totally incapable of giving consent at all.’
All of the men, who had been on bail throughout the trial, will be sentenced at a future date.
Judge Robert Spragg told them: ‘You have all been convicted of a number of offences.
‘You will be sentenced on a date yet to be decided. Now, you are all remanded in custody.’
Pour, of Longbenton, North Tyneside, was convicted of four offences of sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, supplying controlled drug to another and permitting his premises to be used for the supply of drugs.
Asad, of Newcastle, has been convicted of sexual assault, supplying a controlled drug, causing a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual activity with a child.
He was cleared of paying for the sexual services of a child and conspiracy to facilitate or arrange the prostitution of a child.
Azizi, of Byker, Newcastle, was convicted of two offences of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.
He was cleared of rape and sexual activity with a child.
Obaid, also of Byker, was cleared of sexual activity with a child, paying for the sexual services of a child and conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the prostitution of a child.