Syrian Asylum Seeker Tried to Pay a Young Grooming Gang Victim to Drop the Case Against His Son, Who Was Jailed for Rape, But What the Girl Secretly Did Next Changed Everything

The father of a man jailed for sexually abusing young girls in Newcastle has been sent to prison after trying to convince one of his son’s victims to withdraw her evidence in exchange for money and gifts.

Ahmad Alaboud, a 59-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, and his son’s friend, Abdullah Kalzli, 21, repeatedly contacted the young woman, who was just 13 years old when she was abused by members of a grooming gang.

The two men wanted her to drop the case against Huzaefa Alaboud, who had been convicted alongside three other men for serious sexual offences against girls in Newcastle.

The gang had targeted vulnerable young girls, offering them alcohol and cigarettes before sexually abusing them. The offences happened several years before the four men were convicted in December 2023.

Huzaefa Alaboud was eventually sentenced to five and a half years in prison in 2024 for crimes that included rape.

However, instead of allowing the victim to move on with her life, his father and a family friend decided to contact her in an attempt to change the outcome of the case.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Abdullah Kalzli repeatedly approached a friend of the victim, asking for her contact details.

According to prosecutor Mairi Clancy, Kalzli was determined to speak to the young woman and told her friend that he wanted to offer her a gift if she agreed to drop the court case.

During a secretly recorded telephone conversation, Kalzli explained that he wanted to discuss what he described as a problem and offer the victim a good amount of money as a gift.

He eventually obtained the telephone number of the victim’s mother and made several calls.

One of those calls was answered by the victim herself, who was 19 years old at the time.

During the conversation, Kalzli acted as an interpreter for Ahmad Alaboud, who tried to persuade the young woman to help his imprisoned son.

The father explained that Huzaefa had suffered from cancer when he was younger and claimed there were concerns that the illness might be returning while he was in prison.

He hoped the young woman would feel sorry for his son and agree to withdraw her evidence.

During the call, the men told her she could drop the case and receive something in return as a gift.

Kalzli also tried to make the offer sound friendly, telling her they wanted to settle the matter peacefully and were willing to give her whatever she wanted.

But the young woman did not agree to their demands.

Instead, she secretly recorded the conversation and handed the evidence to the police.

The recording later became an important part of the case against both men.

Ahmad Alaboud and Abdullah Kalzli, who both lived in Throckley, Newcastle, eventually admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The court sentenced Ahmad Alaboud to 10 months in prison, while Kalzli received a nine-month prison sentence.

The victim later explained how the unexpected phone calls had affected her emotionally.

According to the BBC, she told the court that she had spent years trying to rebuild her life after the sexual abuse she suffered as a young teenager.

She said the calls brought back painful memories and made it difficult for her to move forward.

Describing her teenage years, she said they should have been a happy and carefree time, but instead became the worst period of her life.

Her mother also spoke about the emotional damage her daughter had suffered.

She explained that the young woman had struggled for years because of what happened to her and that the latest attempt to contact her had brought back the trauma.

During the sentencing hearing, lawyers representing the two men asked the court to consider their personal circumstances.

Kalzli’s lawyer argued that he had been naive and had become involved because of his respect for an older member of his community.

The court also heard about Ahmad Alaboud’s difficult journey to Britain.

His lawyer, Rachel Hedworth, explained that he had fled Syria with his wife and three children in 2013 after their family home was destroyed during a bombing.

The family spent several years living in an asylum camp in Jordan before being relocated to Newcastle through the United Nations in 2017.

The court was told that Ahmad had limited knowledge of the offences committed by his son and had become extremely worried about his health.

His son had previously suffered from Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer, and the father feared the illness might have returned.

His lawyer explained that Ahmad had made a foolish decision to approach the victim because he believed she might feel sorry for his son and help him get out of prison.

However, the judge made it clear that his concerns about his son’s health did not justify interfering with the victim or the justice system.

Recorder Brian Whitehead described the offence as serious.

He pointed out that the young woman had already suffered terrible sexual abuse when she was only a child and had been forced to deal with the consequences for years.

The judge said the attempts to persuade her to withdraw her evidence had caused further distress and brought back memories of what she had experienced.

He also explained that the men’s actions were unlikely to have changed the outcome because Huzaefa Alaboud and the other gang members had already been convicted.

Despite this, the court considered their attempts to influence the victim a serious offence that deserved imprisonment.

Alongside their prison sentences, both men were given restraining orders preventing them from contacting the victim for the next 10 years.

The case has highlighted the additional suffering victims of sexual abuse can face when people connected to their abusers try to pressure them into changing their evidence.

For the young woman at the centre of the case, the ordeal did not end when the men responsible for abusing her were convicted. She was forced to deal with another painful experience when the father of one of those men tried to persuade her to help his son avoid the consequences of his crimes.