Chelmsford-based Iranian sex gang accused admits previously lying under oath

We are not getting daily coverage of this trial, but the Essex Chronicle hasn’t forgotten it. 

A convicted drug dealer admitted previously lying under oath as he was cross-examined as a trial over a Chelmsford-based Iranian sex gang continued.

Amin Kaveh, 35, gave evidence at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday morning (November 18), during which he denied raping a woman on three separate occasions and sexually assaulting her on another occasion between September 22, 2012 and March 1, 2013.

He also denied ‘farming’ the woman out for sex to others in the Iranian community and supplying mephedrone, also known as Dolly, to a different woman.

Defending Kaveh, Mark Tomassi questioned the defendant, who was convicted of being part of a drugs conspiracy back in February of this year. Mr Tomassi asked: “Do you accept you were correctly convicted by another jury? So in the past you lied to a jury? Do you accept you were caught lying before a jury?”

Kaveh replied: “It’s true that I lied in my previous trial and I feel guilty and sorry and ashamed because I told lies. I apologise to the court, but in this trial I am not going to lie because I am not the same person, I have changed. I am not the same person that I was or that I used to be two years ago. I am not the same man…”

Kaveh claims he paid for consensual sex with the woman who accused him of rape and forcing her into a life of prostitution.

Cross-examining, prosecutor Christopher Paxton said: “What your case amounts to is that she has lied about being raped by you and being farmed out to men in your community for sex for drugs. Do you agree you can think of no reason why she would tell lies about these things?” Kaveh then told the court he did not know why the alleged victim would make up lies about him.

When he was interviewed by police last year, Kaveh said he was gay, but has since told the court that he is bisexual. 

Mr Paxton continued: “I am just looking at the agreed facts. The jury can see that during the course of those interviews you told police you were homeless and that you were gay. What you were trying to suggest when you were saying you were gay is that you do not have sex with women.”

The alleged victim claims Kaveh, who has worked at Essex Pizza on Broomfield Road, CM Pizza on Duke Street, and West End City on Duke Street, turned her into a prostitute and controlled her by threatening her family and on one occasion threatened her with a Taser that belonged to his flatmate.

During the cross-examination in front of Judge Patricia Lynch QC, Mr Paxton suggested to Kaveh that he raped the alleged victim on a number of occasions.

Kaveh replied: “I never raped her. Never in my life. I had sex with her. I paid her money, she came to me. I’ve never raped no one in my life. I hate that word. I sold her Dolly and I had sex with her. She was a woman selling her body and she came to me. With God as my witness, I would never do that.”

The alleged victim claimed Kaveh used to make her perform sex acts on him and on herself, and said he would pin her down, grab her and strangle her.

You were farming her out and exploiting her addiction to Dolly weren’t you?” Mr Paxton said. “You knew she was addicted to Dolly and you were a big player of Dolly supply in Chelmsford and south Essex weren’t you? You had the thing she wanted, Dolly, and that’s how you controlled her to have sex with men and you against her consent.”