Three brothers have been jailed after underage girls in Leeds and Barrow-in-Furness were sexually abused and raped over a number of years.

The trio were convicted in October last year, with the abuse taking place between 1996 and 2010.

Shaha Amran Miah, 49, known as Jai; Shaha Alman Miah, 47, known as Ali; and Shah Joman Miah, 38, known as Sarj all pleaded not guilty.

Sarj has since admitted his crimes. However, the judge said it could be a cynical attempt for leniency and did not give him any credit.

They were sentenced on Friday to the following:

Shaha Amran Miah – life with a minimum term of 20 years and 338 days.

Shaha Alman Miah – 10 years in prison and four years on licence.

Shah Joman Miah – life with a minimum term of 21 years and 232 days.

Preston Crown Court heard Sarj and Jai regularly sexually abused two children at a Leeds mosque over many years, beginning when the victims were seven.

The three also preyed on vulnerable and underage girls at a flat above their family’s takeaway in Barrow, Cumbria, between 2008 and 2010.

They gave them cigarettes, alcohol, food and even hair extensions in what barrister Tim Evans KC called a “classic grooming technique”.

He said the brothers worked as a team and “created an environment in Barrow in which each of them could abuse young girls”.

Judge Unsworth KC said they had shattered the lives of their victims and hid in plain sight in the Cumbria town.

Multiple schoolgirls in their uniforms were regularly seen at the takeaway, the judge said, with Jai acting ruthlessly to stop them going to the police.

The court heard Sarj would take one of the girls to a hotel for sex about twice a month and became increasingly controlling – to the point she remains on medication and is terrified of seeing him in the street.

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A witness told Sky News the men abused their victims in a dingy room above the takeaway that “looked like a crackhouse” and had mattresses on the floor and sheets covering the windows.

“They knew exactly how young they were,” she said. “They didn’t only have one girlfriend each… they had multiple.”

Shaha Amran Miah was found guilty of 16 sexual offences against three girls, including rape, as well as two charges of intimidation and one of kidnap.

Shaha Alman Miah was found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child.

Shah Joman Miah was convicted of sexually abusing three children. There were nine counts of rape of a child among his 40 offences.

Apple will no longer offer customers in the UK its most advanced, end-to-end security encryption feature for cloud data – following a security row with the government.

The Advanced Data Protection (ADP) tool is an optional feature which means only account holders can see things like photos or documents that they have stored online. Apple itself does not have access to the data.

However, the UK government reportedly requested the right to see the data earlier this month.

In response, Apple has removed the tool from use in the UK.

The company is switching it off as an option for those not already using it, and will introduce a process to move existing users away from it.

Security officials argue that encryption hinders criminal investigations, while tech firms defend it as essential to user privacy.

The loss of end-to-end encryption for iCloud backup means Apple would be able in some instances to read user data such as iMessages that would otherwise be protected and pass it on to authorities if legally compelled.

However, if a user has end-to-end encryption, Apple cannot read the data under any circumstances.

What has Apple said?

“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” Apple said in a statement.

“Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before.

“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom.”

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Apple customers who already had the data protection tool turned on “will eventually need to disable this security feature”, said the company.

It is already unavailable for customers who weren’t using the feature, who now see a message reading: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users.”

What has the UK government said?

The government said it will not confirm or deny whether it requested a Technical Capability Notice (TCN), which is what would give it the right to see the encrypted data.

“We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices,” a Home Office spokesperson told Sky News.

According to a Home Office source, however, even if a TCN was issued, it wouldn’t give the government blanket access to people’s data.

Separate authorisations or warrants would still be required.

What’s the reaction from the tech industry?

Many in the tech industry are shocked by Apple’s move, with Graeme Stewart from cybersecurity company Check Point saying it “is effectively smashing open Pandora’s box and hoping the chaos stays neatly inside”.

“At its heart, encryption isn’t just for criminals; it’s a shield for millions of law-abiding citizens, businesses, and critical infrastructure,” he said.

“Now we are prying open that door to our digital Fort Knox, there’s no telling what else might slip through.”

Apple was also described as “calling the government’s bluff” by Robert Peake who is the technology partner at Keystone Law, for refusing to create a backdoor into its protected data.

“The Government will face increasing pressure to back down on this, as it seriously undermines its recent attempts to portray the UK as a pro-innovation place to operate,” he said.

A woman has been charged with stalking Madeleine McCann’s family.

Julia Wandel, 23, also known as Julia Wandelt, from Poland, was arrested at Bristol Airport on Wednesday, Leicestershire Police said.

She is accused of stalking causing serious alarm or distress against Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann between 2 May last year and 15 February this year.

Wandel allegedly turned up at their home and sent letters, calls, voicemails and WhatsApp messages, which amounted to stalking, court documents show.

She is also accused of stalking Madeleine’s sister Amelie between 3 January 3 and 21 April 2024, and her brother Sean between 27 November and 29 December 2024.

A 60-year-old woman from Wales, who was also arrested on suspicion of stalking, has been released on bail, the force added.

Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child cases. Madeleine disappeared in Portugal’s Algarve back in 2007 while on holiday with her family.

Read more: How the disappearance of Madeleine McCann unfolded

Her parents had left their daughter in bed with her twin siblings while they had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant in Praia da Luz when the then three-year-old disappeared on 3 May.

The couple, from Leicestershire, have criticised Portuguese authorities for their investigation into her abduction.

The man suspected of kidnapping her will not face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor told Sky News earlier this year.