The father of a convicted grooming gang member offered a teenage victim money and a “gift” to persuade her to withdraw evidence against his son, a court heard. Ahmad Alaboud, 59, and his son's friend Abdullah Kalzli, 21, contacted the girl, who was 13 when sexually abused by the gang, urging her to drop the case. Both were jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice after repeatedly contacting the victim and offering money in exchange for withdrawing her statements.
Background and Convictions
Huzaefa Alaboud and three other men were jailed in 2024 for sexual offences against girls in Newcastle, following attacks committed several years earlier. The gang groomed their young female victims with alcohol and cigarettes before sexually abusing them, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
After the four men were convicted in December 2023, Kalzli repeatedly asked a friend of one of the victims for the girl's contact details, reported the BBC.
Attempts to Pervert Justice
Prosecutor Mairi Clancy told the court Kalzli was “persistent” in his efforts and told the friend he “needed to speak to her about giving her a gift to drop the court case”. In a secretly recorded phone call, Kalzli said he wanted to speak to the victim about “this problem” and offer her “good money as a gift”.
He was eventually given the girl's mother's telephone number and made several calls, one answered by the victim, then 19. Kalzli acted as an interpreter for Ahmad Alaboud, with the pair telling her that his son had previously suffered from cancer and feared the illness could be returning while in prison. They told her: “You can just drop the case for him and we can give you something as a gift.” Kalzli added they were “just trying to sort this problem out nicely and kindly” and would give her “whatever” she wanted. The victim recorded the conversation and handed it to police.
Sentencing and Impact
Huzaefa Alaboud was jailed for five and a half years in 2024 for offences including rape. His father, a 59-year-old asylum seeker from Syria, and Kalzli, both of whom lived in Throckley, Newcastle, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice. Ahmad Alaboud was sentenced to 10 months in prison, while Kalzli received nine months.
The victim told the court she had been trying to rebuild her life following the earlier abuse when the “insensitive and cruel” phone call reopened the trauma. She said in a statement: “Being a teenager should be carefree and fun, for me it was the worst years of my life.” Her mother said her daughter had been “on the edge” for years following the abuse and feared the latest contact had brought everything back.
In mitigation, the court heard Kalzli had been “naive” and acted out of “misplaced respect for an elder in his cultural community”. Rachel Hedworth, representing Ahmad Alaboud, said the lorry driver had fled Syria with his wife and three children in 2013 after their home was destroyed in a bombing. The family spent several years in an asylum camp in Jordan before being relocated to Newcastle by the United Nations in 2017. She said Ahmad Alaboud had little knowledge of his son's offending and was desperately concerned about his health, believing his childhood Hodgkin lymphoma could be returning. He had taken the “foolish decision” to approach the victim in the hope she would take pity on his son and help secure his release.
Recorder Brian Whitehead described the offence as serious, noting the victim had already suffered “appalling sexual abuse as a young teenager” before the subsequent attempts to persuade her to withdraw her evidence reopened the ordeal. He said the attempts were unlikely to have changed the outcome, given the gang had already been convicted. Both men were made subject to restraining orders banning them from contacting the victim for 10 years.
