From GB News and The Manchester Evening News Photograph from The Oldham Times.
The MCN is running a live blog from the courtroom which is practically a live transcript of the opening remarks. This is even greater detail than GB news at the moment, although they also have TV reports. The public is now again being appraised of the depths of depravity inflicted on little girls.
The jury was sworn in and administrative matters dealt with last week; today the prosecution began to open the case.
The trial of a group of men accused of sexual offences in Rochdale has heard how vulnerable girls ‘became sex slaves for older men’. Two girls were “ruthlessly” abused, degraded and sexually exploited at the hands of grooming gangs of men in Rochdale, a court has heard.
On the opening day of a trial expected to last up to 12 weeks, Manchester Crown Court heard in the prosecution’s opening case that the vulnerable girls endured “appalling” treatment at the hands of the alleged perpetrators.
Rossano Scamardella KC is opening the case for the prosecution. He is being quite definite that the defendants are both Asian and Muslim. The trial is expected to last up to 12 weeks.
The defendants, the court heard, were “split into two groups”: those linked to the market in Rochdale where ‘bossman’ Mohammed Zahid worked; and those who worked as taxi drivers.
Zahid, who was in his mid-40s during the time of the alleged abuse, sold lingerie at his market in Rochdale and it is alleged that he raped one of the victims while she was in her school uniform. The defendants were said to have allegedly abused the girls in alleyways, warehouses, taxis, in “filthy houses or flats” in a “grim and sordid existence”.
The prosecution said that both victims were vulnerable and deeply troubled when they suffered at the hands of the eight defendants.
Those standing trial are accused of committing the alleged offences, between 2001 and 2006, including 43 counts of rape.
the girls were groomed by groups of men at various parks, woods, at the Moors, or at Rochdale market and the snooker hall. The grooming transformed into sexual exploitation, the prosecution said, with the girls being “expected to have sex with these men and others, whenever and wherever the men wanted . . . often forced to have oral sex and vaginal sex with multiple men on the same day, in filthy flats and on rancid mattresses.”
Describing the abuse the girls allegedly faced, the prosecuting barrister said that the girls were “lied to about it being forbidden for Muslim men to use protection,” so the men would often ejaculate in their mouths or inside them.
Prosecutor Mr Scarmadella KC said: “These men cared not a bit about sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies.”
He said that one of the victims conceived a baby, at the hands of one of her alleged rapists.
On one occasion, one of the victims was plied with alcohol to the point of extreme intoxication before a “glass bottle was inserted into her vagina,” the court heard.
The court heard that this incident was filmed and that the victim was threatened with the footage being “distributed” unless she had sex with other men.
But the footage was distributed, even after she had sex with the men, and the court said it reached her family. “She remains terrified to this day that it still exists somewhere.”
“[Girl A] was sexually exploited by several taxi drivers in Rochdale. This was not a coincidence. She described her phone ringing almost constantly, and when she tried to distance herself by getting a new number, her new number would be passed around by her abusers, such was their determination. There was obviously an agreement between Rochdale taxi drivers that [Girl A] could be used for sex. They did not even try to hide it. It was not just a coincidence that these men were all treating her in the same way, at the same locations, over the same period. They were passing her around, having collectively groomed her to the point where she knew nothing else, she had no free choice, she was surrendering, she was not consenting. There was an agreement between these taxi drivers and others, to engage in penetrative sexual acts with [Girl A], without her consent.”
The defendants deny various alleged sexual offences against the complainants.
- Mohammed Zahid, 64, of Station Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, is charged with 10 counts of rape; four counts of indecency with a child; and six counts of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse
- Kashir Bashir, 50, of Napier Street East, Oldham, is charged with two counts of rape; and two counts of indecency with a child
- Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, of Corona Avenue, Oldham, is charged with four counts of rape; four counts of indecency with a child; and a single count of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse
- Roheez Khan, 39, of Athole Street, Rochdale, is charged with a single count of rape
- Mohammed Shahzad, 43, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale, is charged with eight counts of rape; and single counts of conspiracy to commit indecency with a child; conspiracy to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity; indecency with a child; indecent assault; and assault by penetration
- Nisar Hussain, 43, of Newfield Close, Rochdale, is charged with four counts of rape; and single counts of conspiracy to commit indecency with a child; conspiracy to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity; indecent assault; and assault by penetration
- Naheem Akram, 48, of Manley Road, Rochdale, is charged with 11 counts of rape; and single counts of conspiracy to commit indecency with a child; conspiracy to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity; indecency with a child; indecent assault; and assault by penetration
- Arfan Khan, 40, of Grouse Street, Rochdale, is charged with two counts of rape; and single counts of conspiracy to commit indecency with a child; and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity
Six defendants were present in the dock, with Mohammed Shazad being excused due to a doctor’s appointment. Kasir Bashir did not appear in court and no explanation has been given for his absence.
Three of the defendants had interpreters.
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3 Responses
Over and above the horror of the individual cases at court, there are two alarming aspects about this sort of story. (1) the prevalence of one kind of dynamic which surely has at its core the dehumanising mindset of the Islamic faith since it not only involves the high prevalence of offenders but the community as a whole for a singular failure to address these rather openly known issues. That is not to say many would endorse this conduct but any criticism of such conduct is exceptionally rare. (2) the singular failure of the British authorities to address these matters and to look the other way at a time in which child sexual abuse had been widely uncovered across institutions, and to sooner blame the most vulnerable victims.