Seven alleged sexual predators have gone on trial accused of exploiting and abusing a teenage girl.
The men face a total of 17 charges in connection with the sexual exploitation of one girl in Keighley, West Yorkshire, between 2008 and 2009 when she was 14, Bradford Crown Court heard.
The jury was told that multiple men sexually abused and raped the girl at her home, where she was often left alone at night.
Kama Melly QC, prosecuting, said: “Her home life as she became a teenager was a very sad one in which she was often left completely unsupervised and, as a result, vulnerable to exploitation.
“We say these men … were aware of her situation, being home alone, being vulnerable, and went on to use that to abuse her sexually.”
Melly said the girl began to drink alcohol heavily from the age of 14 and her behaviour deteriorated.
She told the court the girl often felt “frightened” and “petrified” about the men coming to her house and took to sleeping with a knife under her pillow.
Police were made aware of two allegations of rape at the time but the girl did not disclose exactly what was happening—believing the men were her friends and she was not being exploited, the court heard.
She told social services the men coming to her home on an evening were always trying to get her to give them oral sex, the court heard.
Melly said: “She described sometimes there would be a degree of physical force, sometimes she would just give into them because she didn’t want to have vaginal sex with them.”
The court heard there was a “sense of expectation” in the girl’s home and the men were often able to commit the alleged rapes “without consent, with submission and with little or no resistance.”
Melly told the jury: “There was a very clear picture of a girl, aged 14, saying she was being left home alone … and was being raped on more than one occasion by men in her home.”
She added: “It is easy to think that the local authority, the police, the family, failed [the girl] but this case is not about their roles but the role of what we say were sexual predators.”
Nazir Khan, 28, of no fixed abode, denies two counts of oral rape and told police he had been to the girl’s house but that no sexual activity took place, the court heard.
The jury was told Kamran Hussain, 28, of Hawk Street, Keighley, denies two counts of rape and told police nothing sexual happened between him and the girl.
Melly said the girl told police she thought of Hassan Ali, 28, of Hollings Lane, Keighley, as a boyfriend at the time. He denied any sexual activity and said he would have stopped any sexual abuse taking place had he seen it. He denies two counts of rape.
The court heard she also believed she was in a relationship with Sohail Hussain, 30, of Skipton Road, Keighley, who she said “was always trying to have sex with her.” She told police she thought it was “expected of her” to give him oral sex and also agreed to have vaginal sex with him.
He told police that anything that happened between them was consensual and he did not know that she was under 16 at the time. He denies five counts of rape.
Ali Razaq, 26, of Hawk Street, Keighley, denies a charge of oral rape that was reported to the police in March 2009. He said sexual activity did take place but it was consensual.
Usman Sultan, 28, of Lawkholme Lane, Keighley, denies a charge of anal rape that police were made aware of in April 2009. He also denies three further counts of rape and gave a statement to police that he had never had any form of sexual activity with the girl.
The seventh defendant, Kasam Hussain, 30, of Lister Street, Keighley, is accused of offering the girl money to have sex and encouraging her to drink heavily before she was sexually abused by another man, the court heard. He denies one charge of intentionally inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity and told police he was not involved.
The trial continues.
