Sharam Muhamadi, a convicted child sex trafficker, has appeared before Sheffield Crown Court after being extradited from Switzerland, where he was arrested following his conviction in his absence. Muhamadi, 21, helped fellow Doncaster man Bawan Harwe contact girls as young as 12 on Snapchat, before the girls were groomed, drugged and raped; the case has drawn wider attention because of the men's immigration status and government pledges to strip sex offenders of refugee protections.

Muhamadi stopped attending his trial in June and was convicted in his absence of two counts of arranging or facilitating another person's travel for exploitation, prompting an arrest warrant; he has now been remanded in custody until his next hearing on 3 September. The court heard he and Harwe, both convenience store workers living in Hexthorpe, used fake names to lure seven girls aged 12 to 16 with drugs, e-cigarettes, money and taxi rides, with six of them subsequently given alcohol and drugs before being raped. Harwe, an Iraqi national, was jailed for 29 years in June, while Muhamadi, an Iranian national who arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied asylum seeker in 2021, had been granted leave to remain in 2022, due for review in 2027. Border Security Minister Alex Norris called the men's offending "monstrous" and said sex offenders would be denied refugee protections and deported as soon as possible.