‘I BOUGHT YOU VODKA, YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME SOMETHING…’
Court told gang plied teens with booze and drugs for sex
A GROUP of 11 men plied girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs so they could use them for sex, a court heard.
The five girls, aged between 13 and 15 when the alleged abuse began, were passed around by the men “who acted together to sexually exploit the girls”, a trial at Liverpool Crown Court was told.
All the girls were from broken homes and one was in care.
Rachel Smith, opening the case for the prosecution, told the jury: “Some of you may find what you are about to hear distressing. The events and circumstances described by the girls are at best saddening and at worst shocking in places.
“No child should be exploited as these girls say they were.”
The court heard some of the girls were raped and physically assaulted and some were forced to have sex with “several men in a day, several times a week”.
The offences are said to have taken place in and around Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in 2008 and 2009.
The court was told some of the defendants paid the girls and took payments from other men to whom they supplied the teens for sex.
Kabeer Hassan, 24, Abdul Aziz, 41, Abdul Rauf, 43, Mohammed Sajid, 35, Adil Khan, 42, Abdul Qayyum, 43, Mohammed Amin, 44, Qamar Shahzad, 29, Liaquat Shah, 41, and Hamid Safi, 22, are charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16.
The men have all pleaded not guilty along with a 59-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons.
He denies two counts of rape, aiding and abetting a rape, one count of sexual assault and an allegation of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.
Hassan, of Oldham, and Shahzad, of Rochdale, also deny rape.
Aziz, of Rochdale, denies two counts of rape and one allegation of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Khan and Rauf, both of Rochdale, have also pleaded not guilty to trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Sajid, of Rochdale, denies trafficking, two counts of rape and one allegation of sexual activity with a child.
Amin, of Rochdale, denies sexual assault.
Shah and Safi, both of Rochdale, each denied two counts of rape and Safi has also pleaded not guilty to trafficking.
Aziz, Khan, Safi and the 59-year-old are remanded in custody.
Qayyum, of Rochdale, and the other defendants are on bail.
The court heard the men knew each other and two of them worked in the takeaways Tasty Bites and the Balti House, in Heywood, Rochdale.
Four of the other men worked as taxi drivers at local cab firms, one was a student and four were jobless.
The men were known to the girls by nicknames such as “Master” and “Tiger”, the court was told.
The girls would often spend their days “unsupervised by responsible adults”.
They were not in school regularly and “drank and smoked and hung around with little to do”.
Miss Smith said they were the “sort of children who were easy to identify, target and exploit for the sexual gratification of these men”.
One girl told police the men she met were “friends” who looked after her and “her number would be passed around the Pakistani men in her area”.
She told officers: “When you’ve got Asian friends, your number gets passed. They pass it to their friends, and they pass it to their friends. It ends up with a massive circle…everyone’s got it.”
Miss Smith told the jury that one of the older girls, who was 16 at the time of the alleged abuse, recruited younger girls for the men as well as having sex with them for money.
The court heard that on one occasion, the 59-year-old unnamed man met two girls at a takeaway where they were given food and vodka.
He demanded sex from one 15-year-old, saying: “It’s part of the deal because I bought you vodka, you have to give me something.”
Miss Smith said the girl refused and he raped her.
When the girl started crying, he said: “Don’t cry, I love you.”
On another occasion, the 59-year-old took one of the girls to Oldham where she was raped by another male whom she did not know.
On the way home, he told her: “Don’t tell anyone. I’ll give you money, I’ll give you anything you want.”
The court heard about another occasion when the man said he gave girls the vodka as a “treat” and they had to have sex with other men.
He also plied girls with cannabis, the court heard.
The jury heard that in August 2008, Abdul Aziz “took over” from the 59-year-old accused and started taking girls to various locations where they would have sex with older men – including a flat in Rochdale where Mohammed Sajid and Mohammed Shazad lived – where a “group of men” would always be waiting to have sex with them.
The court heard on another occasion the same two defendants raped her together with Safi saying, “I want a turn, I want a turn” after Shah carried out the first rape.
She also said the two men raped her while she was so drunk “she was vomiting over the side of the bed” after drinking Sambuca, vodka, beer and Jack Daniels.
She told police: “They were just having it in turns sort of thing. There was nothing I could do – I was throwing up, I just kept throwing up. And I felt like I couldn’t move.”
Miss Smith said: “They saw her being sick and each raped her.
The case continues.