Rochdale grooming victim has ‘vivid imagination’, court told

July 26, 2023

I was just checking the list for what happened today and found this more detailed news report from the BBC.

A woman who says she was sexually abused by grooming gangs in Rochdale has a “vivid imagination”, a court was told.

The trial at Minshull Street Crown Court, which is now in its third month, has heard that two men had previously been convicted of abusing Girl A. She has since made claims against 50 men, eight of whom are on trial.

Meyrick Williams, defending Insar Hussain, 36, told the jury in his closing remarks: “Her motive and certainly her evidence must be in question”. Mr Williams said Girl A’s allegations showed “a vivid imagination at work”. He added: “How can you be completely paralytic and at school the next day?”

In a second defence closing speech, Katherine Pierpoint, defending Ikhlaq Yousaf, 38, said: “There’s a real risk in this case of people simply being lumped together and specifically Ikhlaq Yousaf being lumped in with others.

“On numerous occasions during 42 hours of [police] video interview, she says… ‘They’re all the same’. ‘They all do the same sort of thing to me’.”

Ms Pierpoint said when Girl A was first interviewed by police in September 2015, she gave them a list of names headed “Groomers” – but Yousaf’s name was not on it.

“It’s not disputed that she, as a young person, was subject to years of abuse,” Ms Pierpoint said. But she continued that, although Girl A’s account might be truthful and accurate about some defendants, this was not the case with all of them. She suggested Yousaf was an “easy target” as his family was well-known in the town.

The trial continues.

So far as I can tell only one defendant, Jahn Shahid Ghani, actually gave evidence and submitted himself to cross-examination by the prosecution. This is not uncommon in grooming gang trials. The jury can draw their own conclusions. Then if convicted it makes it easier for the defendants to claim they were stitched up by lying complainants and a racist system.