sentenced to 29 years in jail for raping six children in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\nBawan Harwe, a 28-year-old Iraqi national, lured underage girls back to his flat – also on Hexthorpe Road – with the promise of free vapes and cash.<\/p>\n
Sheffield Crown Court heard Harwe targeted the victims because of their age, plied them with drink and drugs, and raped or abused them. The youngest victim was 12 years old.<\/p>\n
The BBC understands Harwe is seeking asylum but the Home Office says it cannot confirm his status in the UK for legal reasons.<\/p>\n
A co-worker, Sharam Muhamadi, originally from Iran, has also been convicted of facilitating travel for exploitation. There is now a manhunt to find him after he fled the trial.<\/p>\n
The case has thrown a spotlight once again on crimes and illegal activity centred around mini-marts in the UK.<\/p>\n
BBC investigations have exposed – over the past 18 months – the sale of cocaine and cannabis over the counter at mini-marts, as well as child sexual exploitation, money laundering and immigration crime.<\/p>\n
Locals living near Hexthorpe Mini Market, where Harwe and Muhamadi worked, told us they were horrified but not surprised by the pair’s crimes.<\/p>\n
The street, in one of the poorest areas of Doncaster, is lined with such shops. <\/p>\n
Residents told us that crime in the area was being fuelled by the sale of illegal cigarettes and vapes.<\/p>\n
It is a situation we have seen reflected in many other high streets across the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being bribed with vapes and alcohol by mini-mart workers is a “normal” thing to hear about, two schoolgirls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-633898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}