Jurors trying eight men from Rochdale accused of sexually exploiting two girls have been warned not to be prejudiced by the fact the Greater Manchester town has become “synonymous with grooming”.
They were told to “rid yourself of preconceptions” and not be tempted to convict simply to “redress past wrongs” for the failures of the authorities in other well-publicised Rochdale cases, such as those portrayed in the BBC drama Three Girls.
Clare Wade, KC, representing the lead defendant, Mohammed Faisal Ghani, who denies 21 sexual offences, told the jury in her closing speech: “Rochdale, it has been said more than once, is a small community and everyone knows everyone. It’s small, but nationally everyone had heard of Rochdale. It has a terrible history; sadly the name of the town is synonymous with grooming.”
She added: “It’s as if all this has become part of the fabric of Rochdale. It isn’t a template, you don’t just slot the facts into what has happened before. This is the here and now.”
She told them: “You can’t redress past wrongs by convicting Mohammed Faisal Ghani … You must rid yourselves of preconceptions.”
The prosecutor, Neil Usher, told the jury in his closing speech that two of the defendants showed their “utter contempt” for their alleged victims by referring to the main complainant, Girl A, as “that” in their police interviews.
Ikhlaq Yousaf, 38, who denies seven sexual offences, told detectives: “I wouldn’t touch that with a bargepole.” Aftar Khan, 35, who denies eight charges, said: “She looks like a man. Why would I have a blow job off her? How could I have a relationship with that?”
Usher told the jury the eight defendants treated Girl A “with utter contempt. She was for them little more than a passive orifice for their sexual demands.”
Only one of the seven defendants, Ghani’s 50-year-old half brother, Jahn Shahid Ghani, gave evidence in the trial, which began in May.
“You should hold it against them the fact they elected not to give evidence when deciding who is telling the truth,” Usher said.
He suggested the men knew their defences would not stand up to cross-examination. Many changed their stories when presented with the evidence against them, Usher told the jury.
He said Mohammed Faisal Ghani, now 38, had given three different defences after his arrest. First he claimed he had never met Girl A, who he is accused of raping from the age of 12, when he was 17, the jury heard.
Then he admitted he had been in a sexual relationship with her, but only when she was 16. Finally, he suggested Girl A was “so traumatised” by the abuse she had suffered at the hands of others that she had “innocently but mistakenly misremembered” who was responsible.
Both of the complainants in the case, women now aged 33, gave evidence and were cross-examined by the defendants’ barristers. Girl A gave 38 police video interviews between 2016 and 2021, over a period of 42 hours, the jury heard. Girl B gave 26 video interviews over 22 hours.
The trial continues.
