The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A man who arranged for a 14-year-old girl to be taken from a South Lincolnshire children’s home to London for sex has been jailed for 12 years.
Billal Amin sent a taxi to Lincolnshire to collect the teenager and her 15-year-old friend and take her to a Travelodge in East London.
Martin Hurst, prosecuting at Lincoln Crown Court, said the two girls were plied with alcohol before the 14-year-old performed a sex act on Amin.
The 14-year-old then had sex with another man before Amin took a taxi with the girls telling them they were going to his home.
When they left the taxi, Amin disappeared abandoning the girls in the street.
The court was told that the girls were left in London in the the middle of the night and had no idea where they were. They sought help and police were contacted resulting in an investigation that led to the arrest of Amin.
Amin (33), of Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, north east London, denied a charge of trafficking for sexual exploitation in March 2013 and two charges of sexual activity with a child but was convicted by a jury on a 10-2 majority. He was cleared of a further charge of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order banning from having contact with any child under 16.
Judge Simon Hirst, passing sentence, said that after the incident at the Travelodge, Amin acted “disgracefully”.
He added: “Abandoning a 14-year-old girl in London in the middle of the night beggars belief.”
In evidence, Amin denied the offences. He told the jury that his life had been ruined and he wished he had never gone anywhere near the girl.
