A FIFTH man has been referred to the Court of Appeal for a review of a "lenient" sentence for grooming and raping a vulnerable girl.

Amjad Hussain, 35, was one of five men found guilty of grooming and sexually abusing the victim following a seven-week trial at Bradford Crown Court last October.

The four other men were jailed for a combined total of almost 50 years at a sentencing hearing in February, but Hussain's sentence was only imposed in March.

Hussain, of Adar Street, Keighley, was found guilty of two specific rape charges and a further offence relating to "multiple incident rapes", and was jailed for 12 years.

His four co-defendants, aged between 30 and 42, were referred to the Court of Appeal after an application under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme which allows members of the public to ask for certain sentences to be reviewed.

The Attorney General's office did so because it believes that the jail terms for Hassan Basharat, Baber Hussain, Omar Safdar and Imran Sabir are too low, so the case was passed on to the higher court to review the length of their sentences.

Now the same thing has happened to Amjad Hussain, although it is not yet known if his hearing will take place alongside that of the four other defendants, whose sitting is set to take place next Thursday (May 12).

The Court of Appeal could increase one or all of the sentences.

The men were jailed over multiple counts of raping the same girl, between March 2009 and March 2010.

Basharat, 32, of Highfield Road, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years for one count of rape and conspiring to rape with one of his co-defendants, Imran Sabir.

Hussain, 36, of Thorn Lane, Heaton, was jailed for 13 years for seven counts of rape.

Safdar, 30, who was already in prison, was jailed for 12 years for three counts of rape. He raped the victim in her own home on one occasion despite her asking him not to attend.

Sabir, 42, of Spencer Street, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years for one count of rape, and conspiring to rape with Basharat.

The court heard the men would rape the same girl, described as 'extremely troubled and tormented', either individually or together.

They drove the girl, who was then 15, to parks, flats and isolated places in the Keighley area, where they raped her.