Grooming accused in court
Twenty one men have pleaded not guilty this week to historic sexual offences against a Halifax schoolgirl. A total of 25 defendants have been charged with offences against the teenager and seven attended Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday with 18 more the following day.
One man from Halifax also denied an offence against a second girl, the only charge involving her.
The charges were not put to four of the men at the request of their counsel. The defendants have been split into groups and at the moment four separate trials are due to be held next year. A court order is in place preventing publication of the full addresses of any defendants.
The first trial in February will be of Aftab Hussain, Fasil Mahmood and Akbar Hussain all from Halifax.
Aftab Hussain, 36, pleaded not guilty to four charges. He denied meeting a child following sexual grooming, sexual assault on the girl between July 20 2008 and June 11 2011 and two offences of sexual activity with a child between 1 January and 21 July 2011.
Fasil Mahmood, 36, denied sexual activity with a child between July 20, 2009 and 21 July 2010 when she was aged 14 and supplying her with cannabis between the same dates.
Akbar Hussain, 29, denied sexual activity with a child between July 20 2010 and July 21 2011 when she was aged 15 and supplying her with cannabis between those dates.
The four other defendants who appeared on Tuesday due to be tried later were: Aesan Pervez, 26 of Halifax who pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on August 5, 2009 and to a sexual assault on October 31, 2009.
Sikander Ishaq, 31 of Halifax denied one charge of sexual activity with a child between July 20, 2009 and July 21, 2011.
Furqaan Ghafar, 30 from Derby denied sexual activity with a child between February 22, 2011 and April 6, 2011.
No charge was put to Mansoor Akhtar, 24 from Huddersfield and his case was adjourned.
On Wednesday Moham- med Ramzan, 34, from Bradford denied three charges of trafficking the schoolgirl complainant for sexual exploitation on April 11, 2011 by arranging or facilitating travel within the UK; raping her between April 10 and April 13, 2011 and conspiring with Khalid Zaman to engage in sexual activity with a child.
Zaman, 37, also from Bradford denied conspiracy with Ramzan to engage in sexual activity, two charges of raping the girl on April 12, 2011 and supplying her with the drug mephedrone on April 11 that year.
Hedar Ali, 35 from Nantwich, Cheshire pleaded not guilty to four charges, they were two alleged offences of trafficking the girl for sexual exploitation between 10 June and 21 July 2011 by arranging or facilitating travel for her within the UK and two charges of raping her.
Mohammed Janjuha, 34, from Bradford pleaded not guilty to raping the girl between July 20, 2009 and 21 July, 2011.
They are due to be among defendants in the third trial next year.
Tahir Mahmood, 42 from Halifax who denied two charges of sexual activity with a child involving the same schoolgirl and a further charge of sexual assault on another girl will be among defendants in the second trial.
Other defendants in that trial include Tauqeer Butt, 30 from Halifax who denied four charges of sexual activity with a child between 20 July 2009 and 21 July 2011.
Haaris Ahmed, 31 from Halifax who denied two charges of sexual activity with a child under 16 between July 20 2009 and 21 July 2011 and denied one charge of supplying her with cannabis but admitted a second.
Arshad Majid, 25 from Shipley and Christopher Mulqueen Bennett, 36 of Gwent, Newport who each pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual activity with a child between 20 July 2009 and 21 July 2011.
Zameer Asif, 25 from Halifax pleaded not guilty to sexual activity with a child between June 1 and December 31, 2010.
Azeem Subhani, 24 from Halifax denied two charges of sexual activity with the schoolgirl as did Amaar Ali Ditta, 26, also from Halifax.
Mohammed Ali Ahmed, 42 and Sikander Malik, 30, both from Halifax each denied one charge of sexual activity with the schoolgirl.
Talib Sadiq, 30 of Halifax denied two charges of sexual activity with a child between 20 July 2010 and 21 July 2011 when the girl was 15.
Charges were not put to Mohammed Askar 32, from Bradford, Atif Ali, 32 and Haider Ali, 40 from Halifax.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said two days had been fixed in August this year for a ground rules hearing when questions are agreed for cross-examination of the complainant before the videoing of that cross-examination takes place in September. The evidence of child or vulnerable complainants has been recorded on video to be played as their evidence in chief at trial for several years and Leeds Crown Court is currently one of the centres piloting a new system where the cross-examination is also done and videod in advance of a trial.
The defendants were granted conditional bail until the next hearing in August.