Fri, 06 Dec 2019
Michelle Heeley QC is leading Sarah Allen, both of No5 Barristers’ Chambers, in the prosecution of a historic child sex abuse case.
They told jurors at Birmingham Crown Court that a 12-year-old girl was ‘traded like a piece of meat’ by a group of men who were abusing her and no-one intervened despite rumours circulating at her school.
The prosecution said the alleged victim was first sold for sex by Tanveer Ahmed who had ‘befriended’ her during a low point in her life and that she continued to be abused by a group of men in Telford until she was in her mid-teens.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims to have been taken to a flat above a Perfect Pizza shop in Telford, to have sex and had lost count of the men she was forced to sleep with.
In video evidence she told the court her family were not aware of what was going on, and that despite rumours beginning to circulate at her school, no-one had intervened.
She said: “Even the teachers heard people saying these things and not one teacher pulled me to the side and asked me if things were alright.”
The woman came forward years after the alleged abuse ended after she recognised two men from press reports on West Mercia Police’s Operation Chalice investigation.
Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, faces two charges of rape and three of indecent assault; Amjad Hussain, 38, of Telford, is charged with two counts of forcing her to perform a sex act and Nazam Akhtar, 35, from Wellington is charged with rape and Mohammad Rizwan, 37, from Telford, who also worked at Perfect Pizza, faces two charges of indecent assault.
All the defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.
Tanveer Ahmed is not on trial because he was deported to Pakistan for ‘unrelated offences’.
To read more about the case visit: https://news.sky.com/story/woman-says-not-one-teacher-intervened-after-rumours-she-was-being-abused-11878303
