Girls raped and used as prostitutes, Rotherham abuse trial told

Teenage girls in Rotherham were repeatedly raped, beaten, passed between abusers and used as prostitutes, a court has heard.

A jury was told one girl was locked in a house in the South Yorkshire town for weeks as she was forced to have sex with a succession of Asian men.

The teenager, who was in local authority care, sometimes had sex with men three times a day fearing she would be hurt if she did not comply, prosecutors told Sheffield Crown Court.

Jurors were also told how a 12-year-old girl was forced to perform sex acts with a group of men in a car after she was picked up from a children's home, how another girl was called a "white bitch and trash" after she was forced to have oral sex and the mother of one alleged victim was threatened with her house being firebombed.

Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC outlined these alleged incidents in the opening of the trial of five men and two women accused of roles in the sexual exploitation of children in the South Yorkshire town over a period of more than 10 years.

Ms Colborne said 12 women will tell the jury they were "targeted, sexualised and in some instances subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature".

She said a number of these girls got pregnant during the abuse. Some were living in children's homes where, in one case, "seemingly no one was interested in whether she returned in a bloodied state", prosecutors said.

Arshid Hussain, 40, Qurban Ali, 53, Majid Bostan, 37, Sajid Bostan, 38, Basharat Hussain, 39, Karen MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40, all deny a total of 63 charges between them.

Ms Colborne said Arshid Hussain - known as Mad Ash - played a key role.

She said: "He used them for his own gratification, then often prostituted them or passed them on to his brothers or associates of his.

"He was assisted in differing ways by the other defendants, each willingly engaged in exploitative behaviour and using the girls to their own ends."

The prosecutor said another victim, who is now 43, was plied with alcohol and sexually assaulted by an unknown man at MacGregor's house.

She told the jury of six men and six women: "The prosecution say she deliberately set out to make girls available for sexual encounters with older men."

Turning to another of the alleged victims, Ms Colborne said Basharat Hussain - Arshid Hussain's brother - picked this girl up from a children's home when she was 12.

She said a staff member said it was okay to take her and bring her back by 11pm.

Despite telling Basharat Hussain - known as Bash - her age and that she was a virgin, she was forced to have oral sex with him and other men in a car, the prosecutor said.

Another alleged victim ended up in prison after handling drugs and guns for the Hussain brothers, Ms Colborne said.

She said the complainant said the brothers "owned Rotherham" and she did what they told her to do.

The prosecutor said that during one sexual assault, when the girl was 14, Arshid Hussain called her a "a white bitch and trash".

Ms Colborne said another alleged victim will describe how Basharat Hussain once verbally and physically abused her for two hours as he was high on drugs and alcohol.

She said: "He had shovels in the boot of the car and told her she could dig her own grave.

"He slapped her hard , knocking her to the floor. He punched her and spat at her.

"She thought he was going to kill her and she was terrified."

On another occasion she said she woke up to find "he was strangling her with his hands" and Bash also threatened to burn down her brother's house.

Ms Colborne said: "(The girl) was subjected to years of mental and physical cruelty. She was assaulted on a regular basis and lived in fear that either she or her brother would be seriously harmed of killed."

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.