Two men and three teenage boys have been found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on young girls.

Zdeno Mirga, 18, Hassan Abdulla, 33, and three boys were convicted at the Old Bailey. The Crown Prosecution Service said it was one of the “worst cases” of child sex abuse it had seen.

The group targeted five girls aged 13 and 14 in Peterborough. They are due to be sentenced on 20 February.

Mirga’s brother Dusan, 20, David Ziga, 19, and another teenager were cleared.

One of the group’s victims, referred to in court as Victim A, was a 13-year-old girl with a severe learning disability.

The gang congregated at a fried chicken takeaway in Peterborough and carried out their attacks at locations including a children’s playground, using what police described as “sophisticated” tactics to groom their victims.

After a trial lasting two-and-a-half months, the five were convicted of a total of 18 counts of rape, one of causing or inciting child prostitution, one of engaging in sexual activity with a child, three of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and three of sexual assault.

Judge John Bevan QC said: “Because some of the defendants do not speak good enough English, despite having lived here a long time, three interpreters have worked full time during this case, at a cost of over £30,000.”

He told the jury: “You have sat diligently and paid the closest of attention for weeks on end.

“It has been transparently obvious that you have been working very hard.”

He excused them from further jury service for the next 15 years.

Victim A described Zdeno Mirga, known as “Skinny”, as the gang’s boss, prosecutor Angela Rafferty said.

“He encouraged her, often very forcefully indeed, to give others… sex.

“He did this using the power he had over her at the time, or threatened her and sometimes he used violence against her.

“Skinny took her to parties where she was shared around sexually.”

The girl told police that Mirga “shared” her because he wanted money to buy cannabis and vodka, the court heard.

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A 31-year-old man has appeared in court accused of abducting a 15-year-old girl from Bradford Council care on Christmas Day.

Abid Miskeen, of Little Horton Lane, Bradford, is alleged to have been having “a romantic relationship” with the vulnerable teenager, who went missing for 36 hours before she was found by police.

Miskeen appeared in custody at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court yesterday charged with taking a child from the lawful control of Bradford Council Social Services Department on December 25.

He pleaded not guilty to the allegation.

Prosecutor Paul Ramsay alleged that Miskeen and the girl were in “a romantic relationship.”

He said the defendant had been on bail after being charged in October with two offences of sexual activity with a child under 16.

That case would be heard at Bradford Crown Court and Mr Ramsay and Miskeen’s solicitor advocate, Alias Yousaf, said the new allegation, involving the same girl, should also be transferred there.

Magistrates heard that the police mounted an exhaustive missing person enquiry to trace the girl on Christmas Day when she failed to return to the local authority care home where she lives in Bradford.

She had attended the home of a family member for Christmas dinner but disappeared afterwards.

The court was told she was found 36 hours later hiding in the basement at a female friend’s house in the city.

Mr Ramsay said one of Miskeen’s bail conditions was not to have any contact with the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

He alleged they had been seen together in Little Horton Lane after she went missing.

Mr Yousaf applied for Miskeen to be rebailed but the magistrates refused the application.

Miskeen, who wore a red winter coat in the dock, was remanded in custody to appear at Bradford Crown Court in the New Year.

A Labour MP has condemned police for claiming a case involving nine Asian men sexually grooming as many as 47 white girls as young as 13 was not a racial issue.

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk has said Greater Manchester Police’s attitude towards the case involving the Asian men is “wholly and completely wrong”.

The case between Asian defendants and white victims sparked protests from far-right groups but police insisted the grooming was not “racially motivated”.

The men, from Rochdale and Oldham, were jailed for a total of 77 years in May 2012 for the sexual exploitation of girls of ages as young as 13.

Talking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, Mr Danczuk said ethnicity “is a factor” in on-street grooming.

He said: “There is no doubt about it, ethnicity is a factor in this type of abuse, this on-street grooming.

“I think by saying so I think it makes it easier for us to combat it.”

He told the programme that he suspects the abuse is still continuing in the Lancashire area and across the country.

“In terms of whether it is still going on I suspect it probably is,” he said.

“The intelligence that I receive as a Member of Parliament, and I keep my ear close to the ground, is that this sort of abuse is still occurring.

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