Three members of a Somali sex gang who trafficked, raped and subjected vulnerable British schoolgirls to ‘violent and horrible’ abuse have been jailed for 32 years.

Girls as young as 14 were plied with drugs and alcohol before being ‘pestered again and again’ for sex by the men who operated in inner city Bristol.

Bristol Crown Court heard the rapes became ‘routine’ and the men regarded some of the victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as ‘cheap and easy’.

Seven Somali men went on trial at the beginning of September accused of 46 charges in connection with the sex ring, who preyed on girls from a range of different backgrounds and ethnicities.

Three of the men – Sakariya Sheikh, 23, Mohammed Dahir, 24, and Abdirashid Abdulahi, 23 – have now been convicted of 14 charges, including trafficking, sexual assault and rape.

Sheikh was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of three sexual assaults, two counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, rape and supplying a class B drug.

Both Dahir and Abdulahi were convicted of two counts of rape each and jailed for eight years.

Sentencing them, Judge Peter Blair QC said: ‘You have brought shame upon your families and upon yourselves.

‘You are not worthy of very much further attention in this court room. My attention is focused upon the victims of your crimes.

‘They were four children trying to find their way in life, some of them struggling with difficult issues at home.

‘You used your older age, your personal freedom and your relative stronger power to manipulate and coerce them into becoming for you little more than objects to satisfy you sexually.’