Court Hears Rochdale Sex Gang Plied Girls With Drink

21 February 2012, 19:01 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

11 men are on trial at Liverpool Crown Court over claims they sexually exploited 5 girls aged between 13 and 15 by passing them around for sex.

All the girls were from broken homes and one was in care. The court heard that some of the girls were raped and physically assaulted and some were forced to have sex with ``several men in a day, several times a week''.

The offences are said to have happened in and around Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in 2008 and 2009. The court was told that some of the defendants paid the girls and took payments from other men to whom they supplied the girls for sex.

Kabeer Hassan, 24, Abdul Aziz, 41, Abdul Rauf, 43, Mohammed Sajid, 35, Adil Khan, 42, Abdul Qayyum, 43, Mohammed Amin, 44, Qamar Shahzad, 29, Liaquat Shah, 41, and Hamid Safi, 22, are on trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16.

They have all pleaded not guilty along with a 59-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons. 

Rachel Smith, opening the case for the prosecution, said the girls were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex but that there were times when violence was used.

The court heard the men knew each other and that two of them worked in the takeaways Tasty Bites and the Balti House, both in Market Street in the Heywood area of Rochdale. Four of the other men worked as cab drivers at local taxi firms, one was a student and four were jobless. The men were known to the girls by nicknames such as ``Master'' and ``Tiger'', the court was told.