Child sex trafficking gang trial: 12-year-old girl was taken for a backstreet abortion, court hears

A girl was taken for a backstreet abortion by a member of a child sex trafficking gang who had got her pregnant aged 12, a court heard today.

"Girl D" sobbed as she told the Old Bailey she was driven to Reading by Mohammed Karrar and another man and taken to a "normal-looking house", where the procedure was carried out while she was drugged.

She also said that she believed Mr Karrar, nearly 20 years her senior, loved her and that they were involved in a "normal relationship". She said that, despite this, he convinced her to have sex with other men by telling her: "you love me, do it for me".

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was giving evidence in the trial of nine men accused of a host of child-sex and drugs charges. She is not the youngest complainant, but her abuse started at the earliest age (11-years-old) of any of the complainants.

She told the court when she arrived at the house in Reading the door was answered by a man in jeans and a T-shirt. After describing the crude instruments used to carry out the abortion, the girl said: "I remember being bloody… for ages… it felt like a period pain but 10 times worse." But, asked if she wanted her friendship with Mr Karrar to continue after she returned from the abortion, she said: "At the time I think I did, in some respects. I thought I loved him and whatever girls think when they get with someone: it will work out, stick with him through hard times and good times."

She said Mr Karrar would either visit her at home, where she lived with her parents – who are deaf – or she would be taken to addresses in Oxford, including Mr Karrar's flat. In each, she said, Mr Karrar would have sex with her and would sometimes bring other men to do the same, on one occasion four in a single evening. She said she once refused because she believed she loved him and, therefore, did not believe it was right to perform the acts he wanted her to on another person. "He accepted that answer but as time went on, it got worse because he said: 'you love me, do it for me'. That is how it went as time went on, and it got worse."

"Girl D" said she told Mr Karrar she was 16 the first time they met even though she was 11. She said he tried to have sex with her. When she told him no and that she was menstruating, he performed other sex acts on her. She said this happened too quickly for her to protest.

She said he sent her a message the next day saying he didn't know she was 11 and that they would have to keep it from people but should meet up again. She said he did not stop having sex with her after learning her true age.

The girl said that her father also had mental difficulties and she looked after her parents, only realising that this was not a "normal" upbringing when she started secondary school. This realisation, she said, made her rebel and she began to become difficult at school, struggling to build friendships and bullying some other children.

Once she met Mr Karrar, she said sex would sometimes take place in her parents' home; on one occasion when her father was in the house. Neither of her parents, she said, were aware of the nature of the pair's relationship. She said she also met Mr Karrar's brother Bassam early in her ordeal.

The alleged gang members were arrested by Thames Valley Police early last year. They are Kamar Jamil, 27, Assad Hussain, 32, and Bilal Ahmed, 26. Two sets of brothers: Akhtar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 30; and Mohammed, 38, and Bassam Karrar, 32, are also charged along with Mohammed Hussain, 24, and Zeeshan Ahmed, 27. They all deny the charges. The trial continues.