A 38-YEAR-OLD accused of raping and violently sexually abusing girls as young as 11 has told the Old Bailey the charges are a "product of a fertile imagination".

Father-of-four Mohammed Karrar is accused of drugging, raping, and selling girls aged 11 to 15 for sex. He is one of nine men on trial accused of running a child sex gang in Oxford.

But this morning he told the jury: "I have no idea why they are making up these allegations."

Karrar is accused of giving drugs to complainants known as Girl 3 and 4 and trafficking them across the country to have sex for money.

He is also suspected of arranging for Girl 4 to be gang raped and sexually assaulting her with a baseball bat when she was 12.

Wearing a black button shirt Karrar told the jury he only met Girl 4 twice and suspected she had stolen from his wallet. He said later she and a friend threatened to tell police he had raped her unless he gave them £500.

Karrar agreed when prosecutor Noel Lucas asked him if he thought the evidence given by the girls for "days on end" was all lies, adding: "Nothing more than a product of a fertile imagination?"

And he denied lying when Mr Lucas said: "It's nonsense isn't it Mr Karrar? You are lying through your teeth."

Karrar lived in a Riverside Court studio flat in supported accommodation, the jury heard. He met his wife in Morocco and has three children by her and one by another woman while his wife was pregnant.

His barrister Tracy Ayling asked him: "Have you ever raped (Girl 4)?

"Have you ever fed her drugs? Have you ever hit her with your own body or with any implement like a baseball bat?

"Have you introduced her to customers?"

He replied "no" to every question.

Karrar told the jury Girl 3 approached him on the Oxford towpath and offered to sell him Class A drugs. He said: "I said to her I don't take those things."

The defendant said the girl came to a friend's flat three times and smoked crack. He said she performed a sex act on him but he thought she was 20.

All defendants deny all charges. The trial continues.

 

Nine defendents deny 66 charges. They are:
-Kamar Jamil, 27, of Aldrich Road, Summertown, Oxford, denies five rapes, two charges of conspiracy to rape, one of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and one of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
-Akhtar Dogar, 32, of Tawney Street, East Oxford, denies five rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, two of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
-Anjum Dogar, 31, of Tawney Street, East Oxford, denies three rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, two of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
-Assad Hussain, 32, of Ashhurst Way, Rose Hill, Oxford, denies rape and two charges of sexual activity with a child.
-Mohammed Karrar, 38, of Kames Close, Cowley, denies seven rapes, four charges of conspiracy to rape, two of trafficking for sexual exploitation, two of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, serious sexual assault, conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, using an instrument to procure a miscarriage, and supplying a Class A drug to another.
-Bassam Karrar, 33, of Hundred Acres Close, Cowley, denies three rapes, three charges of conspiracy to rape, two charges of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
-Mohammed Hussain, 24, of Horspath Road, Cowley, Oxford, denies three charges of sexual activity with a child.
-Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, of Palmer Road, Wood Farm, Oxford, denies two charges of sexual activity with a child.
-Bilal Ahmed, 26, of Suffolk Road, Maidenhead, denies sexual activity with a child.