Oxford child sex abuse ring members being sentenced today

(Top row) Akhtar Dogar, Anjum Dogar, Kamar Jamil; (Bottom row) Assad Hussain, Bassam Karrar, Mohammed Karrar and Zeeshan Ahmed

The sentencing of seven men convicted of running a child sex abuse ring in Oxford is due to start today. The gang were found guilty of a range of sexual offences against girls as young as 12 last month.

Over the course of around eight years, they raped children and trafficked them around the country for sex. Six victims, none of whom can be named for legal reasons, gave evidence against the men in a trial at the Old Bailey which lasted more than four months. Many of them were abused while in the care of the local council.

Two sets of brothers, Akhtar Dogar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 31, and Mohammed Karrar, 38, and Bassam Karrar, 33, were convicted of sex crimes, along with Kamar Jamil, 27, Assad Hussain, 32, and Zeeshan Ahmed, 27.

Following the guilty verdicts, judge Peter Rook told the men to expect lengthy jail sentences. He said: "You have been convicted of the most serious of offences. Long custodial sentences are inevitable."

A Serious Case Review will look into the failure to stop the gang, which police first encountered in early 2006 but which was not stopped until 2012.

And three men who ran a guest house regularly used by the men were arrested by officers working on the case earlier this month. Jeremiah Cronin, 81, and his sons Bartholomew, 49, and John, 48, run the Nanford Guest House. They were arrested on suspicion of being a landlord letting a premises for use as a brothel, causing or inciting child prostitution for gain and encouraging / assisting in an offence believing it will be committed, namely rape and causing child prostitution.