Homayun Naruzad, 34, who lived in an apartment near Manchester above his workplace, a food takeout shop known as Family Guy Takeaway, lured the girls to the back of the shop and into his apartment by offering free food and money. He then asked the girls – some of then in their school uniforms – to perform sexual acts to satisfy his foot fetish.
Naruzad did not have penetrative sex with any of the girls. But the prosecution said he enduced he girls to perform sexual acts on him.
Investigators interviewed 26 girls over a two-week period, with 18 of them providing details of incidents. A police raid of Naruzad’s apartment found a “large number” of CDs and magazines “relating to a sexual interest in feet.”
Naruzad has pleaded guilty to 25 counts of sexual activity with children.
Community members and some civil society groups such as ImmigrationWatch UK are calling for his deportation.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said, “We will seek to deport this individual upon completion of his prison sentence. Our priority will always be to protect the public, and we will seek to remove any foreign national convicted of a serious crime.”
But legal experts believe deportation would be incompatible with European human rights laws. The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled in favor of two Somalis facing deportation after being convicted of burglary, drug dealing and threatening to kill. The court said it was the “absolute” duty of the UK to protect individuals facing inhumane treatment or torture in their homelands.
Naruzad, who had no previous convictions, came to the UK in 2000. His claim for protection through asylum was granted last year, although he had already been committing acts of pedophilia before that. He had been sexually abusing the girls for a year before one of them confided to her mother about it.
Naruzad had “rated” the girls by putting stars next to their phone numbers on his cell phone. He paid them between $10 and $180, depending on the kind of abuse they would submit to.
Naruzad, a bodybuilding enthusiast with large tattoos on his body, is known by area teenagers as “Smiley” for his sunny demeanor.
One 13-year-old girl unwittingly acted as a “supplier” and referred friends, some of whom in turn brought their younger sisters. According to court testimonies, one girl came to Naruzad when she “wanted money to buy hair extensions.”
One of the girls targeted by Naruzad suffered from nightmares and says she is experiencing psychological trauma. The 13-year-old said, “Since this has happened to me, I fee down a lot, very angry towards my friends and family.”
One of the girl’s friends, also 13, had “become out of control,” according to her mother, and tried to harm herself with a razor.
Iain Simkin, Naruzad’s attorney, said there had been no penetrative sex or touching “above the ankles,” and that he had not used force or coercion on the girls.
Naruzad expressed “sincere apologies and remorse to the victims and the families” in a statement read to the court.
His case is the latest in a string of incidents involving immigrant men attracted to schoolgirls. Naruzad’s victims are somewhat unique because they are mainly from stable homes, in contrast to victims typically from “vulnerable” backgrounds.
Child exploitation experts say the victims in this case were careful not to arouse suspicion by displaying their purchases, such as cell phones, which can be signs of having extra money beyond what is normally available to them. Detectives involved in the case said it was an example of how systematic abuse could remain undiscovered for long periods of time.
“When his sentence is over, he will simply return back here to our neighborhood, and we don’t want him,” said housewife Jennifer Anson, 56.
“He probably fled Iran because, if he dared assault children there, someone would have killed him,” she said.
