A BARRISTER has suggested girls who made sexual abuse allegations against seven young men from Banbury might have done it for attention.
Yesterday, a jury in Oxford Crown Court heard a closing speech from Clare Dowse, who is defending 21-year-old Takudzwa Hova.
He is on trial for allegedly sexually exploiting eight teenage girls as part of a group called “BB or B2” between 2011 and 2013.
Prosecution barrister, Stuart Trimmer QC, said they had subjected their victims to a cycle of abuse culminating in some cases in rape.
The other defendants are Ahmed Hassan-Sule, 20, of Glyndebourne Gardens; Said Saleh, 20, of Orchard Way; Mohamed Saleh, 21, of Orchard Way; Hova, of Broughton Road; Kagiso Manase, 26, of Warwick Road; Alexandru Nae, 19, of Broome Way; and a 17-year-old who cannot be named.
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They deny a total of 26 charges, including 19 counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, three counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault.
Yesterday Miss Dowse told the jury: “My client says he never had sex with any of those girls and such incidents that they have described did not happen.
“How frankly easy it is for allegations like that to be made with absolutely nothing to corroborate them.
You may think that girls with the sort of chaotic lives you have heard about in this case [...] might be enjoying all the attention from police and social services.”
The trial continues.
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