UPDATE: Child sex ring trial
- Credit: Archant
A man denies sexually assaulting a teenager hours after she alleges she was repeatedly raped by his friends.
Hassan Raza, 23, is accused of one count of sexual assault in a trial that involves four other men in what the prosecution claim is a child sex ring.
Raza came over to England from Pakistan three years ago to study and was living at Westminster Gardens, Barking, where he became friends with the men he now shares the dock with.
On the night on which the 18-year-old girl alleges she was raped three times by two of the other defendants, Raza told the jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday (4) that he heard nothing.
In the morning, he went downstairs and spent several hours with the teenager.
Defence lawyer Dominic D’Souza asked: “When you were having this conversation did she seem at all upset?”
Raza replied: “She seemed happy.”
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The girl claims Raza groped her and forced her to kiss him but he insists she had given him permission.
D’Souza asked if at any stage did he do anything against her will, to which Raza replied “No”.
Raza and the alleged victim then went to a café to get breakfast but when they visited an address in Chadwell Heath Lane the girl’s friend attacked Raza, the police were called and Raza was arrested for sexual assault.
Earlier in the trial the victim told the court: “At first [Raza] made me feel like he understood that I was in pain and that I felt dirty and he basically acted like he understood what it was like and he said he thought it was wrong and I felt quite comfortable around him.
She continued: “He was not trying to comfort me because he cared but it was just his way of treating me as his little pet.”
The girl is one of six alleged victims of rape, sexual assault, grooming and exploitation.
Naeem Ahmed, 25, also of Westminster Gardens, Barking, denies five counts of rape, controlling child prostitution, paying for the sexual services of a child, inciting child prostitution and causing prostitution for a gain.
Jameel Ahmed, 25, of Neville Road, Dagenham, denies two counts of rape and his brother Nabeel Ahmed, 24, of Chadwell Heath Lane denies three.
Anas Iqbal, 25, of Newham Way, East Ham, denies six counts of rape and paying for the sexual services of a child.
The trial continues.
