Tarek Miah, a 20-year-old Bangladeshi man who moved to the UK at age three, was jailed for 15 years after raping a 12-year-old girl and grooming a nine-year-old. He smirked in his police mugshot. The offences occurred in West Sussex between 2023 and 2025.
Details of the crimes
Miah groomed his victims via TikTok and Snapchat. He admitted four counts of rape of a girl under 13 between 2023 and 2024. He also pretended to be a teenage boy to incite a second girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity between 2024 and 2025. In February 2025, he locked two girls in his car after meeting them in a public car park in Midhurst and drove away.
Miah described his abuse as a 'silly mistake' and 'typical experimentation' for a man his age.
Prosecution remarks on cultural attitudes
Prosecutor Steven Molloy said: 'His culture may affect his attitude towards female children... But he moved here when he was three, so he should have - as the probation report calls it - English moral values and laws.'
Victim impact
The first victim, an autistic 12-year-old with a mental age lower than her chronological age, said: 'Since this happened, my life has changed in ways I’m still struggling to cope with. My sense of safety has been badly affected. For six months, I needed my mum to sleep outside my room.'
The mother of the nine-year-old victim said her daughter was 'not the same child she once was'. Both mothers described their daughters as having their 'innocence destroyed' and 'self-worth decimated'.
Sentence and police reaction
Miah was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on June 24, 2026, to 15 years in prison, with a minimum of 10 years before parole eligibility and an extended three-year licence period. He was registered as a sex offender indefinitely and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting computer and mobile phone use and contact with children.
Detective Constable Peter Parkinson said: 'Tarek Miah is a dangerous offender who deliberately targeted young girls. We are very pleased with the sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and hope this outcome brings some measure of closure to the victims and their families.'
Miah admitted two counts of false imprisonment, one count of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity, one count of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity, causing a child under 13 to watch sexual images, and one count of making an indecent image of a child.
