TWO men from Brierfield who tried to stop a young victim giving evidence in a grooming case were yesterday convicted at Burnley Crown Court.

Furqan Amjad, 23, of Halifax Road, and Qasim Hussain, 20, of Townley Street, were found guilty of perverting the course of justice after a two-week trial. Amjad was jailed for 15 months and Hussain will be sentenced on August 23. A third man, Ased Afzal, 28, of Limefield Avenue, Brierfield, was acquitted.

The court heard how a 16-year-old girl was bombarded with 350 text messages and phone calls and given money in an attempt to stop her giving evidence.

She was coerced into travelling to Bradford where she was told to write a letter to say she had made up allegations that she had been abducted and sexually abused when she was 12 at a house in Sackville Street, Brierfield.

Amjad’s brother, Mohammed Imran Amjad, was jailed for four years and three months in April after pleading guilty to three offences of child abduction and one of sexual activity with a child. His guilty pleas came part- way through a trial at Manchester Crown Court. He was also given a seven-year sexual offences prevention order which prohibits him from contacting any girl under 16 or being in a vehicle with a girl under 16 without express permission from the child’s parent.

He must sign the sex offenders’ register and will remain on it for an indefinite period.

Five other men – Haroon Mahmood, 22, of John Street; Mohammed Suleman Farooq, 23, of Berry Street; Omar Mazafer, 22, of Halifax Road; Mohammed Zeeshan Amjad, 25, of Halifax Road; and Shiraz Afzal, 26, of Mansfield Crescent, all in Brierfield – were acquitted on direction of the judge of various sex offences against the same girl.