Girl saw alleged abusers as 'friends', court told

Prosecutors alleged that girls were "passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded"

• Warning: This article contains distressing details

A woman who was allegedly used as a "sex slave" when she was a teenager has told jurors she used to believe it was "normal" to have had sex with at least 30 men by the age of 13.

When she regularly attended a sexual health clinic, she said she did not tell staff what was happening to her because she saw the men as her "friends".

Eight men are on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, accused of sexual offences - including rape and indecent assaults - against two girls as young as 13 in Rochdale between 2001 and 2006.

The prosecution has argued the men plied the girls with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes and then demanded to have sex with them whenever they wanted.

Earlier, prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC said both girls were sexually abused because their troubled backgrounds had made them vulnerable.

"They were children passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded," Mr Scamardella said.

"They became sex slaves."

One alleged victim, known in court as Girl A, was cross-examined by Lisa Wilding KC, representing one of the defendants, Mohammed Zahid.

The 64-year-old, who was known as "Bossman", was accused of giving both girls underwear from his lingerie stall on Rochdale market as well as alcohol, food and money in exchange for sex.

'Thought they were my friends'

Miss Wilding asked Girl A why she had never mentioned being abused by a large number of men when she visited the sexual health clinic.

Girl A said: "I thought that it was a normal thing. I didn't know it was abuse at that time."

Miss Wilding asked her: "If you thought it was normal, why were you lying to the nurses about your real sex life?"

Girl A said: "Because they were older and I was under 16.

"I thought they would get into trouble, I thought they were friends and I didn't want to get friends into trouble."

The cross-examination will continue on Tuesday.

Mr Zahid, of Crumpsall in Manchester, denies all of the charges against him, which include sexually abusing Girl A from when she was 14.

Five Rochdale men - Naheem Akram, 48; Mohammed Shazad, 43; Nisar Hussain, 43; Roheez Khan, 39; Arfan Khan, 40 - also deny all of the charges against them, as do Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, and Kasir Bashir, 50, both from Oldham.

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