Waleed Ali has been incarcerated for raping a 14-year-old girl in an alleyway in Rotherham 21 years prior.
Waleed Ali, 42, received a five-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of raping a girl under the age of 16 at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Waleed Ali had previously been convicted of raping and indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the same alleyway in early 2003, as reported by South Yorkshire Police.
His most recent conviction stemmed from an investigation into longstanding claims of abuse in Rotherham, Yorkshire, from 1997 to 2023 — Operation Stovewood, the UK’s most extended inquiry into child sexual exploitation conducted by the NCA.
Waleed Ali, of Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, was arrested and interviewed in September 2021 after a woman told Operation Stovewood officers she had been attacked when she was 14 years old and had not reported it before.
The NCA said Waleed Ali was in his early 20s and living in Rotherham when he spotted the victim sitting alone at a water fountain in the town centre one day between March 2003 and March 2004.
Waleed Ali and a group of men approached the girl, and he asked her to go into a nearby alleyway with him, the NCA said, adding that Ali grabbed her by the arm when she refused and tried to force her to her feet.
The girl was “intimidated” by the men and went into the dark alleyway, where Ali raped her “away from public sight”, the NCA said.
During the interview in 2021, Waleed Ali told officers he felt “sick” at their questions and denied the crime.
Senior investigating officer Stuart Cobb said: “National Crime Agency officers meticulously identified corroborating evidence after speaking with the victim.
“For 21 years, the victim suffered in silence, but her brave testimony combined with our investigative work has ensured her attacker faced justice.
“I urge anyone who is a victim of child sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred, to seek support and, if they feel ready, report it to the police, who have officers specially trained to investigate such cases.”
It comes after seven men were jailed this week for committing child sex abuse offences against two young girls in Rotherham during the 2000s as part of Operation Stovewood, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
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