Two men who got children drunk and then abused them at parties have been jailed for 38 and a half years in total following a National Crime Agency investigation.
Romauld Stefan Houphouet, 37, an Ivoirian national of Sheffield, and Absolom Sigiyo, 42, a Zimbabwean national of Rotherham, were found guilty of raping two 15-year-old girls countless times between 2011 and 2012 at Sheffield Crown Court on 3 March.
Sigiyo was also found guilty of intimidating one of the victims when he pressured her in an attempt to stop her from supporting the NCA investigation launched in 2018.
Houphouet has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Sigiyo has been jailed for 18 years and six months.
The judge ordered that both men would be subject to restraint orders to prevent them from contacting the victims and that they must sign the Sexual Offences Register.
The victims told investigators they were taken to numerous parties in Rotherham where they were given alcohol and abused by the men, some of whom openly referred to them as “fresh meat”.
The abuse began within minutes of the victims’ first encounter with Houphouet in 2011.
Then, at 24, Houphouet approached the girls in Rotherham Town Centre and invited them to a party. He asked to speak alone with one of the girls and took her into an alleyway, where he raped her.
After the attack, Houphouet took the girls to a house party at Sigiyo’s home, where there were a number of men, including Sigiyo and Jacek Brzozowski. The girls endured a year of sexual abuse in this location and at a second property where Sigiyo later lived.
One victim recalled how Houphouet asked her to perform a lap dance for him at the first party. She and her friend were given alcohol, after which she was sick in the bathroom. When she came out of the room, Houphouet took her into a bedroom and raped her for the second time that evening.
From this day on, the men regularly found the girls in the town centre and pressured them to go to Sigiyo’s home.
The victims described having chaotic lives and living in a care home from which they wanted to escape. Both men took advantage of the girls’ vulnerability, grooming and exploiting them.
Sigiyo paid for taxis to his place and gave them cigarettes and alcohol. Once the girls had accepted these offerings, Sigiyo and Houphouet demanded the girls give them sex in return.
Sigiyo and Houphouet raped the girls multiple times.
The second victim described being raped two to three times a week by Sigiyo, and on one occasion woke up to find him attempting to rape her. The first victim told NCA investigators how Houphouet was possessive of her.
She related how on one occasion, Houphouet verbally abused and raped her in an act of revenge after finding his lodger Jacek Brzozowski having sex with her at one of the parties.
The girl was also raped by Sigiyo.
Specially trained officers from Operation Stovewood – the NCA’s investigation into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham – contacted the women, who are both now in their 20s, after identifying they were potentially victims.
The women subsequently told officers about the abuse. While under investigation for rape, Sigiyo approached one of the women on the street and pressured her to tell police he was innocent.
However, the woman instead reported what he had done, and NCA officers further arrested Sigiyo on suspicion of intimidation. Sigiyo was charged with this and numerous sexual offences, and Houphouet and Brzozowski were charged with sexual offences in November 2022.
Brzozowski, 35, a Polish national of Rotherham, will be sentenced for sexual activity with one of the girls at Sheffield Crown Court on 14 April.
The NCA’s Operation Stovewood remains the single biggest investigation of its kind, looking at allegations of abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. NCA officers have identified more than 1,100 victims, and to date, 42 people—including Sigiyo, Houphouet and Brzozowski—have been convicted.
A number of active investigations remain ongoing.
