Four men were convicted for sexual offences against a vulnerable teenager, 16 who was raped in hotel rooms and exploited after being lured into a car in Birmingham
12:41, 19 Dec 2025
Arqash Zaffar, Mohammed Nadim and Shahban Arif(Image: Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)
Four men have been convicted for the horrific exploitation, sexual assault and rape of a vulnerable 16-year-old girl who they picked up in Birmingham. The victim, a runaway, was lured into Arqash Zaffar’s BMW on Alum Rock Road in July 2019.
She reported that Zaffar raped her multiple times over the following days, including in a hotel room where several men took turns to abuse her. Mohammed Nadim, who was present in Zaffar’s car when the girl was picked up, sexually assaulted her in the vehicle.
Shahban Arif arranged for the victim to be accommodated in a Walsall hotel, while Shiraz Nassar raped her in his Manchester flat after Zaffar drove her there in the dead of night. Following a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury found the four men guilty of various offences.
Shahban Arif was convicted of five counts of rape(Image: Birmingham Live)
Zaffar, 41, from Persehouse Street, Walsall, was convicted of five counts of rape, four counts of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, and one count of arranging travel for another person with a view to exploitation. Nadim, 44, from Wednesbury Road, Walsall, was found guilty of one count of sexual assault.
Arif, 42, of Holden Crescent, Walsall, was convicted of a single exploitation offence. Nassar, 40, from Fir Road, Denton in Manchester, was found guilty of one charge of rape, reports Birmingham Live.
Sentencing has been postponed until 19 March next year. In November, as he opened the case, prosecutor Tim Clarke KC stated: “She was a vulnerable teenager – she was known to social services.
“She had been reported missing from her home on a number of occasions. One of those occasions when she had gone missing was between July 11 and August 12, 2019.
Arqash Zaffar(Image: Birmingham Live)
“The Crown’s case is she spent some of that time in the company of these four men. It’s the Crown’s case three of these defendants, Zaffar, Nadim and Nassar, either sexually exploited her themselves or were present when she was sexually assaulted.
“Zaffar and Arif were involved in her exploitation sexually by others.”
The girl revealed what happened to her social worker after returning home on August 12, 2019, when she was described as being ‘extremely upset’.
She identified three of the defendants by their nicknames, with Zaffar known as ‘Mikey’, Nadim referred to as ‘Dimma’ and Nassar called ‘Soldier’.
Mohammed Nadim(Image: Birmingham Live)
She could only recall Arif by his appearance, stating he had a ‘rat-like face’. He was subsequently given the nickname ‘rat’ at trial. She admitted she had claimed she was aged 19 to them at the time.
The jury was informed the girl was picked up by Zaffar and Nadim on Alum Rock Road on July 20, 2019. She said from there she was driven to a dead end and asked to kiss both men, who exposed themselves to her.
The girl told police she was driven to a car park where Nadim sexually assaulted her in the back of the BMW, before Zaffar forced her to perform oral sex.
She recounted that at one point Zaffar picked up a ‘small, proper skinny bloke’, known to be Arif, and drove her to Manchester where she was raped by Zaffar and Nassar, whose flat it was.
The girl further alleged Zaffar raped her in a hotel in Walsall in front of a ‘baby-faced’ man called ‘Young Boy’. She stated that in a different hotel room with a number of other men Zaffar bragged about her and said she was ‘sexually available’.
She told officers he proceeded to rape her in front of them, before each of the other men also took turns raping her. Her ordeal ended when she was dropped off near Selfridges in Birmingham.
All four defendants accepted being in the girl’s company but denied the offences. Zaffar said she gave him oral sex consensually but claimed nothing further happened.
The jury was shown evidence that at one stage Arif had booked a hotel room using a false name along with Zaffar’s vehicle details.
