'Police would only tackle drugs crime' (From Oxford Mail)

'Police would only tackle drugs crime'

10:00am Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News By Ben Wilkinson, Crime Reporter. Call me on (01865) 425427

A TEENAGE girl told police she had been raped but they said her abuser could only be prosecuted for drug crimes, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Giving evidence at the Oxford child sex exploitation trial, the witness denied lying about allegations of rape and sex trafficking as she was cross-examined by defence barristers.

Known as Girl 4 as she cannot be named, she claims she was raped and sold for sex by brothers Mohammed and Bassam Karrar between the ages of 11 and 15.

Now a young woman, she said she told social workers at her children’s home about abuse in 2007 and police came to speak to her.

She said: “They said the only thing it would be possible to do is get them done for drugs and that’s when I walked away from it.”

Social workers had “joked” they would beat up Mohammed Karrar after she told them about him, the court heard.

The witness made a sex assault complaint to police in May 2005.

Tracy Ayling, defending Moham-med Karrar, asked her why she had not then told police about her client allegedly raping and prostituting her. She said: “You were perfectly willing to talk to police about a sexual assault.”

But the witness said: “If you are 11, you are scared. I have no family, I have nothing around me.

“I had one girl who was sort of a sisterly weird figure, that was the only person. As far as I am concerned I loved him. I clearly didn’t think I was raped.”

And when asked if she had made the rape up, she said: “I am sitting here and you are looking in my eye. I am telling you I have not lied.”

The young woman also admitted said had left details out of her police statement.

She said: “I am under oath right now in this court to tell the truth.

“There is lots of things I didn’t tell (the police).”

And when Miss Ayling asked if she had threatened to cry rape unless her client gave her £500, she said: “You believe that I could threaten a man and take on a man?”

Miss Ayling, finishing her cross-examination, said: “I suggest that in relation to Mohammed Karrar it is not true that he had anything to do with things that were done to you at all.

“That you have made it up that he was anything to do with any of the sexual matters you have given evidence about. That you met him two or three times.”

But the witness said: “That’s not true.”

Mark Milliken-Smith, defending Bassam Karrar, suggested other young woman had lied about Bassam to “bolster” her evidence against his brother Mohammed.

He said: “The reality is you are making things up about Bassam as it pleases you.

“Is that not true?”

She said: “No sir.”

The witness also denied being “mistaken” after claiming Kamar “K-Dog” Jamil and Anjum “Jammy” Dogar were at the “parties” where she had sex with men. But she said the pair did nothing against her.

All nine defendants deny all 79 charges. They are:

• Kamar Jamil, 27, of Aldrich Road, Summertown, Oxford, denies four rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, two of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and one of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
• Akhtar Dogar, 32, of Tawney Street, East Oxford, denies six rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, three of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
• Assad Hussain, 32, of Ashhurst Way, Rose Hill, Oxford, denies two charges of conspiracy to rape and three of sexual activity with a child.
• Anjum Dogar, 31, of Tawney Street, East Oxford, denies four rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, three of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
• Mohammed Karrar, 38, of Kames Close, Cowley, denies seven rapes, four charges of conspiracy to rape, an alternative charge of conspiracy to commit sexual activity with a child, two of trafficking for sexual exploitation, two of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, assault, conspiracy to assault, using an instrument to procure a miscarriage, and supplying a Class A drug to another.
• Bassam Karrar, 33, Hundred Acres Close, Cowley, denies three rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, two charges of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, trafficking for sexual exploitation, and conspiracy to assault.
• Mohammed Hussain, 24, of Horspath Road, Cowley, Oxford, denies rape, conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, and two charges of sexual activity with a child.
• Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, of Palmer Road, Wood Farm, Oxford, denies two charges of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and two charges of sexual activity with a child.
• Bilal Ahmed, 26, of Suffolk Road, Maidenhead, denies conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and sexual activity with a child.

The trial continues.