Huddersfield grooming gang: Girl's families left living in fear as gang trashed their homes and threatened to bomb them

Jurors heard live evidence and watched video recordings in which the young women described the trauma they had suffered.

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Judge Marson said victim impact statements eloquently set out the long-term effects which the abuse has had.

Some of the girls were aged as young as 11 or 12 and were vulnerable because of family and other circumstances.

Before the abuse some were doing well at school but as the grooming developed in an "insidious and persistent way", their behaviour began to deteriorate and families were torn apart.

Children who were socially isolated and not well supported by family and friends were deliberately targeted.

The court heard how, due to their youth and naivety, they thought they were being made to feel special by flattery, going to parties, having rides in cars, being plied with alcohol and drugs and being given presents.

The judge said: "They thought that these men were showing them genuine affection, but what in fact was happening was that a relationship of trust was created, albeit that it was entirely false and had been deliberately created to enable predatory men such as you to perpetrate gross sexual abuse for your own perverted gratification.

"For some it was a more exciting way of life, they saw it as being more adult, doing things which other girls of their age were not doing."

Parents had to call police because their children became so aggressive when they tried to prevent them from leaving the house.

One parent received a threatening phone call asking for their daughter and was told 'I'm coming for you'.

That same mother received a phone call from one of the other girls asking her to pick her daughter up.

She was found on Crosland Moor propped up against a wall, unable to stand and disorientated.

Families became very fearful because the men knew where they lived.

They were followed home and received constant phone calls to their homes and mobile phones.

At least one girl attempted suicide.

One of the girls was seen being thrown out of a moving car outside her home.

She had bruises all over her face and was under the influence of alcohol.

The brother of one of the girls saw a car with Asian men and they said they were looking for "white girls or bitches".

House windows were smashed, threats were made to cause physical harm to members of the girls' families.

Threats were made to bomb a house, damage was done to cars and wheel nuts loosened, causing serious danger.

When one girl was taken into care she was abducted from the home and supplied with drugs and sexually abused.

One of the girls said: "I suppose when you're young and you get bullied at school and stuff like that you do sort of like the attention, and things getting bought for you and stuff, but then once you were in with them, you couldn't get out of it.

"They got your trust and then stuff would start happening to you and it's just one of those things that you couldn't get out of, it just happened.

"My mum and dad's houses got trashed, their cars got trashed.

"I was constantly getting raped, beaten up."

Another girl spoke of truanting from school in order to meet the men.

She said: "They would start giving us alcohol and offering us cannabis to smoke and we thought 'yes, we like this, we're going to do this, we're grown up'.

"But we weren't really, we were young, but when you are young you do think it is cool to be doing them things, going against what your mum says and stuff like that.

"Just having a little drink, having a bit of a laugh and then as the weeks went on, it started getting a bit different like the drinks would taste a bit different than what they did and you can't really remember things."

Girls spoke of being scared by threats and violence to them and their families.

One girl said: "There was so many of them they all knew each other and it was like an escalation and they knew they could pick me up whenever they wanted because my mum was vulnerable."

Another victim said: "It was just like a continual lifestyle. I didn't know how to get out of it.

"You feel manipulated and scared in a way that if you don't meet these guys then something is going to happen and it just went on continuously for like years really, just the same thing - day in, day out.

"You would see people with knives or fighting so you do feel scared and you do feel intimidated.

"But on the other side you feel like you want to be a rebel because you're that age.

"But really it's a downright dangerous situation you are in and you are playing with fire....getting driven to Scammonden Dam at 13 years old at two o'clock in the morning and if you don't do this you're not gonna come back.

"For years and years I blamed myself that it was my fault I went back.

"They're quite manipulative and when you're in that situation you're so pressured, you feel so stupid and dirty and horrible."

READ MORE ON THIS CASE

-> 20 men found guilty of child sex abuse in Leeds Crown Court trials

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-> Girls’ families were left living in fear by bomb threats