The Rotherham abuse trial currently being heard at Sheffield Crown Court continues with more terrible allegations coming to light regarding the sexual abuse of young girls at the hands of Muslim grooming gangs.
The latest day of evidence at the Rotherham abuse trial heard allegations that a vulnerable 14-year-old girl was held hostage by a grooming ring and was made to have sex with Asian men in exchange for heroin, reports the Sheffield Star.
The victim, now aged 36, was giving evidence at the trial of Arshid Hussain, Qurban Ali, Basharat Hussain, Sajid Bostan, Majid Bostan, Karen MacGregor and Shelley Davies. All deny any involvement in child sexual exploitation offences.
It was when she was around 11 years old that the alleged victim first began suffering sustained sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Arshid Hussain and others, which the court heard lasted for almost a decade. The girl lived in several children’s homes during that time, but at the age of 14 is said to have started living Karen MacGregor’s home.
It is in that Rotherham property the witness said she was held and regularly forced into sex with Asian men, some traveling there from Sheffield. She said that one night she attempted to escape via a window but was seen by another defendant, Shelley Davies, who pulled her back.
“Shelley pulled me back in and ended up beating me up,” the witness said. “Karen came down and ended up hitting me as well. They were shouting at me, telling me that I owed them and had to do what they wanted me to do.”
She said that she was first given heroin by Arshid Hussain in the property of a man called ‘Ken’. Although she was unaware of what it was she can remember “for the rest of the night being out of it.” She was then made to have sex with Hussain’s brother, ‘Bono’, followed by Hussain himself and then, immediately after that, with co-defendant Sajid Bostan.
During the time she lived at Ms. McGregor’s house it is alleged she was made to have sex with ‘six or seven’ men, in return for which she was given heroin. The court heard she was even made to have sex with Ms. MacGregor’s then-boyfriend whom she knew as ‘Blind Ash’ and the prosecution say is defendant Qurban Ali.
Asked about her state of mind, she said: “I was just a mess and all over the place, just wanting someone to look after me.”
In other evidence the lengths the men are said to have gone to in order to access the girls was also highlighted. Arshid Hussain is alleged to have climbed up the drainpipe of a children’s home to take away one 14-year-old victim. In a video interview with police shown to the jury she said:
“I went up to my room and he was already in there stood in the corner. He was asking me to come out with him. I was begging and pleading for him to leave my room because I would have got in trouble. He said he would only leave if I would go with him.”
Despite being moved among several children’s homes, Arshid Hussain and others would always find out where she was, picking her up “on a weekly basis”.
Under cross-examination from Tahir Khan QC, representing Arshid Hussain, the complainant was asked why it took 15 years for her to contact police in September last year. She said the police had approached her.