HALIFAX POLICE OFFICER AMONG 16 CHARGED IN CHILD SEX OFFENCES
A police officer and 15 other men have appeared at Bradford Magistrates' Court accused of sexual assaults against children.The charges, which include rape and supplying drugs, relate to offences against three teenage girls in Halifax between 2006 and 2009.
PC Amjad Ditta faces a single charge of sexual touching.
He and the other men were given bail and will appear at Bradford Crown Court on 20 January.
The victims were aged between 13 and 16 at the time.
Among those charged is Ishtiaq Latif, aged 32, who is accused of sexual activity with a child.
District Judge Charlotte Holland said that the alleged offences were "too serious" to be dealt with by the magistrates' court and that it was necessary for them to be heard at crown court instead.
Mr Ditta, who was attached to West Yorkshire Police's Protective Services Operations, was a serving officer at the time of the alleged offence.
He has been suspended from duty, the force has previously said.
The charged men, who are all from Halifax, include: Vaqaas Abbas, Nadeem Adalat, Sajid Adalat, Waseem Adalat, Amjad Ditta, Christopher Eastwood, Mahtab Islam, Mohammed Rizwan Iqbal, Ishtiaq Latif, Asad Mahmood, Khalifa Mughal, Younis Mohammed, Nadeem Nassir, Shahzad Nowaz, Shazad Nazir, and Sohail Zafar, with various allegations of rape, drug supply, trafficking, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
