An MP who claims he was "castigated" after warning parliament about organised sex abuse gangs has welcomed the jail sentence of 12 men who exploited a vulnerable schoolgirl.

Conservative Kris Hopkins, MP for Keighley and Ilkley, spoke out after 12 Asian men were sentenced for up to 20 years on Monday for grooming and abusing a vulnerable teenager for their own "selfish, sexual gratification".

The men, all from West Yorkshire, abused or sexually assaulted the girl - aged 13 and 14 at the time - in encounters arranged by a violent drug dealer over a period of 13 months between 2011 and 2012.

On one occasion, the girl was gang-raped by five of the defendants.

Some of the abuse took place in an underground car park where there was graffiti with the victim's name and the word 'corner' daubed on the wall.

Bradford Crown Court heard the men treated the girl as though she was "utterly worthless".

Two of the men also received sentences for offences against other victims.

Mr Hopkins, who revealed his concerns about organised gangs in parliament in November 2012, said that the whole community must "work together to rid ourselves of this cancer".

He spoke months after nine Asian men were jailed for grooming girls as young as 13 after hearing from authorities of similar incidents happening in his constituency.

He said: "I was castigated from many quarters, received many abusive pieces of correspondence and on one occasion was forced to clear my constituency office after receiving a threat.

"The heavy sentences rightly handed down underline the nature and the truth of the evil I spoke about back then and will continue to raise until it has been eradicated."

Some of the defendants waved and smiled from the dock as they were sentenced, ITV News Calendar reports.

Judge Roger Thomas QC said all four victims had suffered "severe psychological harm" and he said they were "totally uninterested in her welfare and what damage they were causing her".

He added: "The attitudes of the majority of you have so clearly demonstrated to these proceedings has been contemptuous, disrespectful and arrogant on a scale that I have hardly seen before in many years of practice in criminal law.

"Exactly the same attitude to the 13/14 year old girl who you all sexually abused and exploited for your own selfish gratification."