Zdeno Mirga, 18, (left), Hassan Abdulla, 33, and three teenage boys were found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on girls in Peterborough

By Jon Welch

BBC News

A gang of men and boys convicted of sexually abusing teenage girls in Peterborough used "sophisticated" tactics to groom their victims, detectives have said.

They befriended vulnerable girls, gave them gifts, money, drugs and alcohol and used violence and intimidation to control them, subjecting them to "appalling" abuse in places such as children's playgrounds.

Two men and three teenage boys were found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on five girls.

Their convictions were the result of a "victim-led" investigation, involving Cambridgeshire Police, Peterborough City Council children's services and other agencies.

It formed part of a wider investigation, called Operation Erle, into allegations of sex abuse by other groups of men and boys against young girls.

One of the victims was tied up and raped by a number of men in a playhouse

Police are hopeful of further charges and trials.

"A large team of officers, social workers and police staff are dedicated to the over-arching investigation," said Det Supt Gary Ridgway, who is leading the operation.

"We are working closely together to support the victims we are speaking with and to bring offenders to justice as quickly as possible."

Detectives stress that the investigations are not being linked by offenders or victims, only by the fact that they all involve young people being exploited.

Police began investigating in Peterborough after other high-profile sex abuse cases involving groups of men elsewhere, including in Oxford and Rochdale.

Det Supt Ridgway said: "We decided to carry out an information trawl to identify young people who were potentially vulnerable and at risk of being exploited.

"At that stage we had no complaints, nor any suggestion that such exploitation was going on in the city."

He said officers won the trust of the young people, some of whom later revealed they had been abused.

They had not all been previously known to police or social services.