Girls subjected to abuse in most ‘humiliating and degrading’ way imaginable by grooming gang, court hears

Six defendants are facing sex abuse charges relating to the three women when they were girls in Rochdale. The men deny all charges against them.

At the opening of the trial at Manchester Minshull St Crown Court, the jury heard that Tahir Rashid was accused of buying the 12-year-old Girl C presents and giving her money.

“But this was not generosity from the goodness of his heart, he wanted to have sex with her, which he did on five separate occasions,” claimed prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC.

The jury heard that the 12-year-old was given an STD after Rashid allegedly took her to “various flats” and forced himself on her.
Girl A and Girl C, aged 12 or 13, were allegedly approached as friends in 2005.

Mr Scamardella said that the girls were “children passed around for sex”.

The court was told: “Their experiences at the hands of these predatory men was also appalling. They were children passed around for sex; abused, degraded and then discarded and that it was the two of them that were exploited in this way, was not by chance.” (sic)

The girls were said to have encountered the men in parks, woods, at the Moors and at Rochdale market and the snooker hall.

“They would be driven around by these men, picked up and dropped off at various flats and houses desperate for some stability, and a sense of belonging,” the jury heard.

The prosecution claimed that the defendants were “only too aware of their tender ages” and their vulnerability.

Mr Scamardella KC said: “It was obvious that they craved the attention that their home lives and families did not provide, which made them easy for older men to exploit.”

The two girls were said to have been “forced to have oral sex and vaginal sex with multiple men on the same day,” in filthy flats, in houses, and a disused warehouse.

The prosecution claimed they were expected to have sex “wherever and whenever” the men wanted it.

The court heard allegations that “the girls were lied to about it being forbidden for Muslim men to use protection, so the men would often ejaculate in their mouths or inside them”.

The court heard that Girl A’s mother was concerned by her association with groups of older, Asian males.

The court heard that she was reported missing on “countless occasions” and Rochdale Child Social Services were contacted, but that they were of the view that little, if anything, could be done.

Girl C was said to regularly go missing from home, with Mr Scamardella telling the court that “it was known to Social Services that she was being exploited” by some of the older men she was in the company with.

The prosecution said her mother knew that her daughter was being groomed and sexually abused, and the court heard that she attempted to engage with social services.

The jury heard that Social Services records reveal that her mother told them then that her daughter was having sex with men in return for alcohol, drugs and gifts.

The prosecutor read out a comment from those records, that Girl C saw “some of the men she has had sex with as her boyfriend, and she does not understand that she is being exploited.”

Mr Scamardella said: “It seems that although [Girl C] did not understand that she was the victim of child sexual exploitation, Social Services did. Sadly, nothing was done about it. By anyone.”

Tahir Rashid, 54, faces 12 counts of rape, three counts of indecent assault, and one count of assault by penetration.

Mohammed Saleem, 46, faces eight counts of rape.

Sucklane Shah, 46, faces two counts of rape.

Arshad Mohammed, 53, faces five counts of rape.

Itfaq Hussain, 45, faces three counts of rape.

Amjad Mahmood, 55, faces 12 counts of rape, two counts of indecency with a child, one count of indecent assault, two counts of assault by penetration.

The men deny all charges.

The trial continues.

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