A BUSINESSMAN has been jailed for 16 years for the sexual abuse of two girls when he was a teenager.

Naser Mahmood, of Bradford Road, Shipley, was convicted of two offences of rape and six allegations of indecent assault after a trial last week.

The 37-year-old showed no emotion when he was sentenced by Judge Neil Davey QC at Bradford Crown Court.

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The court heard Mahmood abused the two girls when he was a child aged between 14 and 18-years-old and included multiple offences.

After he sexually assaulted one of the girls, he asked her to pick up the Quran and told her, "Promise you won't tell anyone or I will kill you."

Mahmood was a teenager when he started abusing the young girls and his offending gradually moved from indecent assault to rape over a four year period.

However, the offences did not come to light until almost two decades had past.

During the trial, the jury heard that one girl reported the abuse in 2012 but did not take the allegation further at that time, but police were eventually alerted in 2016.

Mahmood told the police that the women were lying and he had done nothing wrong, but he was found guilty after a trial.

The court heard how the abuse the girls suffered at the hand of Mahmood stopped when he was 18 and the girls were old enough to tackle him.

Abbas Lakha QC, for Mahmood, said his client was a married father-of-two who had run his family's business.

He said: "In the time that has passed there has been no further offending and the court has heard of the unblemished life he has led.

"In the intervening years he has built up a successful family business which employs 18 people whose livelihoods are dependent on him."

Sentencing Mahmood to 16 years imprisonment, Judge Davey referred to the way he had tried to silence one of his victims.

"It was pointed out that she didn't take swearing on the Quran seriously," he said.

"You meant that to be an effective method to keep her mouth shut and to stop her telling anyone what you had done.

"When you made her swear on the holy book you knew perfectly well that what you were doing was wrong.

"It's plain that your conduct towards her over several years caused her significant harm."

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Mahmood committed horrendous offences against these two women when they were still vulnerable young girls. Their trauma has been compounded by his callous attempts to brand them liars and drag them through distressing court proceedings.

“Both have shown incredible bravery in coming forward, and have shown that justice can be achieved no matter how long ago the offences occurred.”