Waleed Ali was previously convicted of raping and indecently assaulting another girl, 13, in the same alleyway in early 2003.

Waleed Ali, 42, was sentenced to five years in prison. Pic: National Crime Agency/PA

A man has been jailed after raping a 14-year-old girl in an alleyway in Rotherham 21 years ago.

Waleed Ali, 42, was sentenced to five years in prison after jurors found him guilty of raping a girl under 16 at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

He had previously been convicted of raping and indecently assaulting another girl, 13, in the same alleyway in early 2003 following an investigation by South Yorkshire Police, the agency added.

His latest conviction was a result of a probe into historic allegations of abuse in Rotherham, Yorkshire, between 1997 and 2023 – the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, the UK’s largest child sexual exploitation inquiry.

Ali, of Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, was arrested and interviewed in September 2021 after a woman told Operation Stovewood officers she had been attacked when she was 14 years old and had not reported it before.

The NCA said Ali was in his early 20s and living in Rotherham when he spotted the victim sitting alone at a water fountain in the town centre one day between March 2003 and March 2004.

He and a group of men approached the girl and he asked her to go into a nearby alleyway with him, the NCA said, adding that Ali grabbed her by the arm when she refused and tried to force her to her feet.

The girl was “intimidated” by the men and went into the dark alleyway, where Ali raped her “away from public sight”, the NCA said.

During the interview in 2021 he told officers he felt “sick” at their questions and denied the crime.

Senior investigating officer, Stuart Cobb, said: “After speaking with the victim, National Crime Agency officers meticulously identified corroborating evidence.

“For 21 years the victim suffered in silence but her brave testimony combined with our investigative work has ensured her attacker faced justice.

“I urge anyone who is a victim of child sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred, to seek support and, if they feel ready, report it to the police, who have officers specially trained to investigate such cases.”

It comes after seven men were jailed this week for committing child sex abuse offences against two young girls in Rotherham during the 2000s as part of Operation Stovewood, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.