Children’s home ‘didn’t care’, alleged Rochdale grooming gang victim tells jury

The woman was allegedly abused by three men from the age of 13 in the basement of a clothes shop in the town and at a house nearby, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.

She and another teenager became “sex slaves” to a gang of Asian men in the town who preyed upon the vulnerable youngsters, the jury was told.

Neither complainant can be identified for legal reasons to protect their anonymity.

Eight men, either taxis drivers or connected to Rochdale market, are on trial and all deny multiple sexual offences including rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child between 2001 and 2006.

Shaking nervously as she gave evidence from the witness box for the first time, the woman, identified only as Girl B, said sexual abuse started when she was living in a children’s home and began to hang around the local market in Rochdale where Mohammed Zahid, then in his 40s, owned a stall.

“At the children’s home, they didn’t care what you were doing,” she told the jury.

Previously, Girl B had been in foster care and lived in multiple children’s homes and secure units around the UK.

She said each week she was taken to the basement of a shop in Rochdale owned by Mushtaq Ahmed.

In the basement room below the shop, there was a bare mattress where she would have sex with market-stall holder Zahid, the shop owner Ahmed and a third man, Kasir Bashir, Girl B said.

She said she could not remember how the abuse started and told police she had tried not to think about it for a long time.

The abuse ended after she was fostered with a woman who was “like a mum” and lived away from Rochdale. Her foster parent began setting down rules, “because she cared”, the witness told the court.

But years later, Girl B tracked Bashir down on Facebook, took a screen shot of his photo and contacted police.

She also spotted her second alleged abuser, Ahmed.

“He was selling fruit and veg out of a van near a school,” she told the jury.

She said she took a photo of the registration plate and gave it to the police.

Earlier, prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC said Girl B and the second alleged victim, identified only as Girl A, suffered sexual abuse because their troubled backgrounds made them susceptible.

“They were children passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded,” he said.

“They became sex slaves.”

Zahid – known then as Bossman or Knickerman – was said to have given free underwear from his lingerie stall on the market to both complainants when he was aged in his mid-40s.

He also allegedly gave them money, alcohol and food in return for the expectation of regular sex for him and other Asian men from Rochdale, the court heard.

Jurors heard Zahid was convicted in 2016 of sexual activity with a girl of 15 in 2006, who he met after she came to his market stall to buy tights for school.

Judge Jonathan Seely on Tuesday discharged one of the 12 jurors who had fallen ill, with the trial continuing with 11 jurors.

All eight defendants deny all charges.

They are: Mohammed Zahid, 64, of Station Road, Crumpsall, Manchester; Naheem Akram, 48, of Manley Road, Rochdale; Mohammed Shazad, 43, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale; Nisar Hussain, 43, of Newfield Close, Rochdale; Roheez Khan, 39, of Athole Street, Rochdale; Arfan Khan, 40, of Grouse Street, Rochdale; Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, of Corona Avenue, Oldham; and Kasir Bashir, 50, of Napier Street East, Oldham.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday morning.