In a ongoing trial, Mohammed Zahid, along with seven co-defendants, is accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, starting when the victims were just 13. Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella described how Zahid lured the girls with gifts and created dependency, manipulating their vulnerabilities. The men allegedly exploited the girls for sex over several years, often in degrading conditions. The case highlights failures by authorities, who were aware of the girls’ situations yet took no action. The abuse, characterized as a grooming gang case, involved serious charges including multiple counts of rape and indecency. All defendants deny the charges.
Two teenage girls were trained to become “sex slaves” for Asian men, including a market trader known as “Bossman”, a jury heard today.
Mohammed Zahid, who was in his 40s, is accused of raping and sexually abusing the two girls after meeting them.
The court heard Zahid offered free underwear, cash, booze and food to girls he didn’t know in exchange for regular sex with him and other Asian men in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. A hearing was held in which it was determined that he had given.
The 64-year-old defendant is currently on trial with seven co-defendants, but is said to be the only defendant in a 56-count indictment to have abused two of the alleged victims.
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella said the two girls were well known to social services and other agencies and it was “no secret” that they were having sex with older Asian men.
But he said no police reports were made and “nothing was done” at the time of the historic crime.
“No action was taken to stop what was happening to these two girls or to stop other similarly vulnerable girls from suffering the same fate,” Scamardella said. added.
The court heard that an investigation into child sexual exploitation in the town was only launched in 2010, nine years after the abuse was outlined in court.
Jurors were told one of the two victims was identified at the time as a potential victim but “refused to get involved”.
Mohamed Zahid is accused of raping and sexually abusing two teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, after meeting the victims when he was in his 40s, a court heard.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, from Oldham, was charged with four counts of rape, four counts of indecency with a child and soliciting a girl for unlawful sexual activity.
Five years after she came forward about what happened to her, a second victim also told police and an investigation began.
The court heard the girls were described as “easy prey” for the defendant. Mr Scamardella said the men exploited their vulnerabilities “in order to obtain their own perverse sexual gratification in the most humiliating and degrading ways imaginable”.
The court heard the abuse began when each girl was just 13 years old and both were abused for more than three years. The men were expected to have sex with the men “whenever and wherever they wanted,” jurors said.
The two girls were known by authorities to be in a “vulnerable position” due to problems in their home lives, and one was taken into custody.
But they felt “indebted” to their abusers, who for the first time in their lives “treated them properly and gave them the attention they desperately needed,” Scamardella said.
He added: “Through no fault of their own, their troubled backgrounds made them vulnerable to the advances of these people and others who behaved like them.” Ta.
“Their treatment at the hands of these predators was horrific. They were children who were trafficked for sex. Abused, degraded, and abandoned, but not exploited in this way. It was no coincidence that there were two of them.
The prosecutor continued: “It would begin by providing the girls with booze, cigarettes, drugs, a place to stay, people to be with, and making them feel like adults.”
The court heard the girls were described as “easy prey” for the defendant. Photo: Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester
“It is perhaps easy to see how, over time, they became dependent on men who, for the first time in their lives, treated them properly and gave them the attention they craved. Sho.
But that was to change quickly and dramatically.
“Girls were expected to have sex with these and other men whenever and wherever the men wanted them. were often forced to have oral and vaginal sex with other men.
“Both girls were required to answer calls from men seeking sex at all hours of the day and night.”
The court heard the girls were expected to have unprotected sex with multiple men on the same day in apartments, cars, car parks, alleyways or disused warehouses.
Mr Scamardella told Manchester Minshull Street Court: “The girls were deceived into believing that Muslim men were not allowed access to protective equipment.”
“These men weren’t concerned about sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies.”
The court heard that one of the victims was impregnated when she was 14 by one of the defendants, Kashir Bashir, who was eight years her senior at the time.
Some of the abuse was filmed and the victim was threatened with distribution of the film if she did not have sex with her abuser, but the footage was eventually distributed to friends and family.
The court heard the girls were seen hanging around groups of Asian men in various parks and woods, as well as in Rochdale’s markets and snooker halls.
“They were driven around by these men and picked up and dropped off at various apartments and homes,” the prosecutor said.
They said they were forced to have sex on “foul-smelling mattresses” and in “filthy apartments.”
The court heard that when the police investigation began, the two alleged victims gave officers the name of the man who had abused them.
When the investigation began in 2015, the alleged victims were taken on a drive around Rochdale to identify locations of interest, allowing police to gather information about where the sordid incident took place. .
The two girls were expected to answer calls at all hours of the day and night from men who wanted to have sex.
One of the victims told police that he would often get on the phone with a man while others were waiting.
The court heard that most of the defendants were connected to the Rochdale market or worked as taxi drivers.
Jurors were told Zahid is suspected of raping one of the girls, who was in uniform, in the back seat of his car.
Scamardella said Zahid introduced the girl to Bashir, a fellow market trader, and then impregnated her.
Mushtaq Ahmed was a friend of Zahid and Bashir and ran a shop and a market stall, the court said.
Mr Scamardella said Mr Zahid was “at the heart of what happened” to each victim.
The alleged abuse occurred between February 2001 and April 2006.
Mr Scamardella told the jury there was a “pattern common to almost all cases” of child sexual exploitation.
“The crimes committed by grooming gangs span the entire spectrum of sexual offences,” he said.
“It often starts with non-penetrative touching, either over or under clothing, and then progresses to forced oral sex or full penetrative intercourse – rape.
“The distinctive feature of child sexual exploitation is that children are forced, controlled, groomed, and manipulated into sexual acts.”
He said the perpetrators of such incidents are “sly” and will appear loving and kind to those they seek to exploit.
“At the heart of its highly deliberate manipulative tactics is an imbalance of power,” the prosecutor added.
“History shows that exploited children are often already vulnerable, with childhoods marked by neglect, substance abuse, and domestic violence.”
Mohammed Zahid, of Crumpsall, Greater Manchester, is charged with 10 counts of rape, four counts of indecency with a child and six counts of procuring a child for the purpose of sex.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, from Oldham, is charged with four counts of rape, four counts of indecency with a child and soliciting a girl for unlawful sexual activity.
Kashir Bashir, 50, from Oldham, was charged with two counts of rape and two counts of indecency with a child.
Naheem Akram, 48, of Rochdale, is charged with 11 counts of rape, indecency with a child, sexual assault, conspiracy to commit indecency with a child and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
Mohammed Shahzad, 43, of Rochdale, is charged with eight counts of rape, indecency with a child, sexual assault, forcible indecency, conspiracy to commit indecency with a child and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
Nisar Hussain, 40, of Rochdale, is charged with four counts of rape, indecent assault, sexual assault, conspiracy to commit indecency with a child and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
Arfan Khan, 40, of Rochdale, is charged with two counts of rape, conspiracy to commit indecent acts on a child and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
Rohees Khan, 39, of Rochdale, was charged with one count of rape.
All deny the charges. The trial continues.