Gang of men 'who groomed young girls for sex drove terrified victim, 14, to the woods at night and threatened to cut her head off'

• Nine men groomed and abused vulnerable girls, court hears
• Jury told they used 'extreme physical and sexual violence'
• Girls given so many drugs that they were 'barely aware', it's claimed
• One girl said she was forced to miscarry after home abortion
• The abuse was alleged to have taken place over eight years

Girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped by a child sex ring before being sold to abusers across Britain, a court heard yesterday.
Nine men, mostly of Asian heritage, befriended vulnerable girls with gifts of perfume, alcohol and drugs before subjecting them to a 'living hell' for eight years.
The six girls were subjected to 'extreme physical and sexual violence' while they were repeatedly raped by numerous abusers.

Scroll down for video

In the dock from L to R: Kamar Jamil, Akhtar Dogar, Anjun Dogar, Assad Hussain, Mohammed Karrar, Bassan A Karra, Mohammed T Hussain face accusations of grooming and horrifically abusing vulnerable girls from the age of 11. All deny the charges

The gang, from the Oxford area, 'actively targeted' girls from 'troubled upbringings' and those who lived in care homes, the Old Bailey heard.
One victim became pregnant by one of her attackers when she was 11 or 12.
When gang member Mohammed Karrar discovered she was pregnant he used an instrument to perform an abortion on her, it was alleged.

 

The attackers used knives, meat cleavers and baseball bats to inflict severe pain on the girls for their twisted pleasure.
On other occasions the girls were bitten, scratched, suffocated, tied up, beaten and burnt with cigarettes.
The men are said to have fed the girls copious amounts of drugs so that they became more complicit to their depraved demands.

'At first they made her feel special by paying her the attention she did not receive at home... it was an act of grooming, the men having realised she was a vulnerable girl, were targeting her for their own sexual purposes.'

Prosecutor Noel Lucas QC

At times the girls were so 'wasted' they 'were barely aware of what was going on' during the abuse.
Men would travel to Oxford 'often by appointment' from as far afield as Bradford, Leeds, London and Slough 'specifically to abuse young girls' in hotels and private houses. Sometimes the girls were taken to towns and cities such as London and Bournemouth where they were sold for sex.
These men also subjected them to 'humiliating and degrading' levels of abuse, leaving the girls with severe internal injuries.
The gang often stood guard outside a room while girls were being abused and threatened to kill them and their families if they tried to escape, the court heard.
One girl, who was just 12 when she was groomed, became so enslaved to the gang that she even forgot it was her 15th birthday when she was with the men.
Later she started to self-harm to 'take away the hurt' and told her mother: 'I may as well be dead.'
Opening the case yesterday Noel Lucas, QC, prosecuting, said: 'Much of what the girls were forced to endure was perverted in the extreme.
'These defendants, and the others with whom they operated, showed the complainants little or no human decency or consideration.

The jury of seven men and five women at the Old Bailey were told 'steel yourself' for the evidence they were to hear

'Their conduct towards these very young and vulnerable girls was with total disregard to any moral inhibitions as to their own conduct. The depravity of what the girls were forced to endure was extreme.'
The men did this 'for their own sexual gratification and for the sexual gratification of other men,' he added.
Kamar Jamil, 27, Akhtar Dogar, 32, Anjum Dogar, 30, Assad Hussain, 32, Mohammed Karrar, 38, Bassam Karrar, 26, Mohammed Hussain, 24, Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, and Bilal Ahmed, 26, face a total of 79 charges against them.
These include allegations of child rape, trafficking for sexual exploitation, arranging or facilitating child prostitution and using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage.
It took almost half an hour for all the charges to be read to the jury. The trial heard how there were many more alleged abusers in addition to those in the dock.

Mr Lucas told the jury of seven men and five women to 'steel yourself' for the 'highly unpleasant and distressing' nature of the evidence they were to hear. He added: 'The evidence will show that these girls were targeted precisely because they were young.
'The girls who were chosen generally had troubled upbringings and unsettled home lives. The combination made it less likely that anyone would be exercising any normal parental control over them or indeed keep a careful eye out for them.'
Mr Lucas said the girls were 'unlikely to be ever able to extract themselves from [the abuse], let alone complain about it'.
And if they did complain it was unlikely they would be believed 'in view of what others would perceive as their delinquent conduct'.
Mr Lucas pointed out to the jury that the girls targeted by the men were just children.
Describing the alleged abuse suffered by one victim, he said: 'When it started she was 11 years old. It went on until she was 15.'
He said the men would came across the girls when they were out drinking or playing truant.
The girls were in care homes and some of them had been sexually exploited by other men before.
Their 'intentional and persistent' abuse is alleged to have taken place between May 2004 and early 2012.
All the defendants deny all the charges.
The trial, which is expected to last until April, continues.

Posted in: World news