Man got away with abusing child for years as authorities failed to intervene

A pedophile gaming enthusiast has been jailed for 21 years after he was caught using a sadistic ‘Xbox trick’ to groom a five-year boy he went to on to rape up to 100 times. 

Anwar Ali, 33 began grooming his victim in 2003 using his Xbox which caused the 5-year boy to suffer from extreme metal illness including OCD.

The young victim was groomed and raped over a period of 4 years by Ali, which went totally unnoticed by local authorities.

The victim eventually went to the police after experiencing sleepless nights and OCD causing him to rub his skin so hard when washing it was ‘redraw’.

When officers finally arrived at Ali’s home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, they found indecent images of children on his computer.

Mr. Ali was found guilty of five counts of rape of a child aged under 12, four counts of sexual assault by penetration of a child under the age of 12 and two counts of accessing indecent images of children

According to the DM: David Bentley prosecuting said:

‘The defendant’s bedroom had a PlayStation and Xbox and the complainant would be invited into the bedroom with the defendant to play video games. But during 2003, when the complainant was only five years old, he approached him from behind and kissing him. It then progressed further over the next four years.’

The court heard on one occasion the boy’s mother went upstairs to Ali’s bedroom and knocked on the door to check if her son was okay unaware he was being abused inside.

Ali denied wrongdoing at a trial earlier this year.

In a statement the victim said:

‘I felt like I could trust Anwar but he stole my childhood. ‘I have developed OCD and wash myself to the point that my skin is red raw. I have found it difficult to cope with normal experiences and I don’t like it when people touch me. The trial has brought everything back for me.’

Sentencing Judge Tina Landale told Ali:

‘This was a campaign of sexual abuse which took place in your bedroom. You enticed him into your bedroom with the promise of playing video games and I described it as a campaign because that there were more than 100 incidents. He says it was sometimes more than once a week.

‘You kept your family in the dark with your sexual interest in young boys and you continued to rape and sexually abuse him. The impact of your abuse on him has had long-lasting consequences. He says that you have stolen his childhood and he doesn’t like it when people touch him.

‘As soon as he was an adult, he was unable to sleep because of the abuse he received, and he told the authorities.’

You expressed grooming behavior because you enticed him into your bedroom with video games. On occasion, his mother was stood on the other side of the door asking him if everything was alright, unaware you were abusing him.

‘You now walk with a stick and I am told you have erectile dysfunction – but that doesn’t stop you from being sexually titillated from child pornography online. You were still being aroused by looking at children being abused online.

‘You are still sexually interested in children and I know this because you were arrested in March 2017 for having indecent images of children.’

Ali will be on license until 2043 after his release from jail and will remain on the sex offenders register for life.

His family wailed from the public gallery and said: ‘He doesn’t deserve this’ as he was led away.

Det Con Louise Isherwood from Greater Manchester Police’s Child Protection Unit said after the case:

‘Ali is a sexual predator who not only used a young boy’s interest in computer games to abuse him over a prolonged period, but had the audacity to plead innocence from the point of police interview and right throughout the trial, forcing the victim to relive this horrific ordeal.

‘But, thanks to the courage of his victim – who did not want to tell his friends and family about this abuse and coped with it on his own before receiving specialist support from officers – we have today’s sentence, which sends out a clear message that no matter when these types of crime happen, they will be taken very seriously.’