Solicitor jailed for sexually abusing two girls

A "manipulative sexual predator" has been jailed for nine years and nine months after he groomed and sexually assaulted two young girls, Humberside Police said.

Solicitor Suleman Baig, 40, later tried to pressurise his victims to retract their evidence, the force added.

Baig, from Grimsby, changed his pleas on the second day of his trial at Leeds Crown Court in December.

He admitted several counts of sexual activity with a child, paying for the sexual services of a child, sexual communications with a child, making and possessing indecent images of children and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Police began an investigation in 2021 after reports of concern about the welfare of a child.

The girl said Baig had asked through social media for indecent images and paid her for sexual activity, police said.

Officers attended his home and Baig was arrested.

Later, a second girl came forward with similar complaints and the investigation was widened.

His mobile phone and other devices were seized which contained thousands of text messages, along with explicit images and videos involving the young girls.

While on bail, Baig visited the home of one of the girls to ask her to pressure her friend to retract her statement.

Following his guilty plea, he was released on conditional bail, with one of his conditions being to hand in all travel documents, police said.

After officers discovered he had given police an expired passport and still had a current one, he was arrested and remanded in custody until his sentencing on Monday.

Philip Shrimpton, from Humberside Police's Protecting Vulnerable People unit, said: "Baig was a practising criminal solicitor and yet still committed such abhorrent crimes against these girls.

"It has been a lengthy and complex investigation, but it is thanks to their courage that he is being held accountable for his despicable sexual deviancy.

"Baig is a manipulative sexual predator who groomed two girls for his own sexual gratification and attempted to pressure them to deny this to the police.

"Whilst he continued to deny all these allegations up until day two of the trial, making the girls and their families go through all the court proceedings, I am glad he is now behind bars and prevented from causing further harm to others."

Graham Guest, senior crown prosecutor for Yorkshire and Humberside, said: "Suleman Baig was a practising solicitor who knew exactly how serious his crimes were, yet still continued to systematically groom and abuse two young girls.

"Baig exploited a position of trust, offering money to manipulate the girls into sending him explicit images for his own gratification.

"His actions were calculated, predatory and deeply disturbing."

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