A court in the Britain has jailed nine South Asian men for luring girls as young as 13 years old into sexual encounters

All of the defendants were from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and India and all the victims were white. Judge Gerald Clifton said that the South Asian men, aged between 22 and 59, were driven by lust and greed, and sentenced them for crimes including trafficking and rape. The 59-year-old ringleader of the group received 19 years in jail, while his co-accused received between four and 12 years. Twenty-six men were arrested in the investigation, which identified 47 potential victims. Eleven men were charged and nine convicted of charges including rape, assault, sex trafficking and conspiracy. Martin Narey, former chief executive of the children's charity Barnardo's, said that men of South Asian descent were overwhelmingly represented in prosecutions for sexual exploitation offenses in some northern English towns such as Rochdale, 170 miles from London. The South Asian men abused the girls in taxis, kebab shops and apartments. They used various defenses, including claiming that the girls were prostitutes. Several said that they did not know the age of consent in Britain, which is 16. British police and the Crown Prosecution Service have apologized for delays in investigating the case. One of the victims first spoke out in 2008, but prosecutors failed to press charges amid concerns that a jury might have questioned the girl's credibility. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating why that decision was made.