The Girls Abused By Oxford Sex Ring

14 May 2013, 17:00 | Updated: 15 May 2013, 20:21

Girls as young as 11 were forced into prostitution and trafficked around the country by the Oxford sex ring between 2004 and last year.

The gang used and abused their victims over long periods of time, subjecting them to "extreme depravity''. 

And, as with the Rochdale grooming ring, opportunities to stop the abuse were missed time and again.

One of the victims described how she was even threatened with arrest for wasting police time when she tried to report the abuse. 

The girls were chosen because they had troubled upbringings, meaning people would be less likely to be looking out for them.

They were groomed by the gang, who lavished them with gifts or simply showed them the care and attention they craved. 

But the attention was simply a way to exploit their vulnerability. Having secured their confidence, the men would ply them with alcohol and introduce them to drugs such as cannabis, crack and heroin. 

The youngsters would become addicted, making them even more dependent on the men, who would threaten to harm them or their families if they tried to leave. 

The girls were often taken to guest houses or empty private properties in Oxford, some of which were used solely for abuse. 

Emergency 999 call which alerted police to abuse

Men would travel from Bradford, Leeds, London and Slough to pay to have sex with the girls in appointments arranged by the gang.

One youngster described two of the men as "the sick sex monsters''. A girl was branded with a hairpin which was bent and heated up by a man who regarded her as his property. 

Girl A felt brave enough to face her abusers in court, while others gave evidence from behind a curtain. She said she was repeatedly raped and sold for sex between 2004 and 2007 when she was aged 12 to 15. 

She wept as she described how the gang threatened to burn her younger brother alive unless she had sex with them. But nothing happened after she went to police and when she was 15 she decided to break away from her abusers. 

She said police should have done more to protect her but instead they said they would arrest her. She added: "They threatened on a number of occasions to arrest me for wasting police time for turning up at a police station in a state after running away.

"Any self-respecting police officer would have seen something was wrong. "If you pick up a child who is covered in cigarette burns and bruises, something is fundamentally wrong. "Adults should be doing their jobs, it's not down to a child.'' 

Girl B said she was told she would be shot if she did not have sex with men when she was 14. Now 21, she said men would wait for her near her children's home. She would be driven to various places where she would be plied with drink and drugs in order to be raped or sold to other men. She said Akhtar Dogar threatened her when she refused to perform a sex act. 

Girl C wept as she described how she was plied with drugs and forced to have sex with strangers while being filmed at the age of 13. 

Now aged 20, Girl C said she felt wanted by the man who had been nice to her at first and fed her drugs. She said: "I still felt like he cared. I did feel used at the time though.'' 

She was taken to London, Coventry and Manchester to have sex with older men. She was given heroin and crack cocaine. On one occasion in London she was fed so much crack that she could not breathe and was rushed to hospital.

The girl was taken the Nanford guest house (pictured left) over two years to be sold for sex. She became pregnant in 2007. 

Girl D, a teenager, gave the most harrowing evidence. She was groomed at the age of 11 and turned into a sex slave by an older man. 

She had gone to a flat "to chill'' and was given drink and drugs. Mohammed Karrar followed her to the bathroom and raped her.

She said: "At the time I thought it was my choice and it was fine, but years on I can see I never had a choice. I said 'no' but I didn't have a say.'' He later introduced her to other men and told her to perform sex acts on them. 

At the age of 12, she was taken to a house in Reading, where she was forced to undergo an illegal abortion on the living room floor.

She said she fell in love with Karrar even though he was married. She told jurors: "It was literally like a normal relationship but I know now it isn't a normal relationship. I was a child.

"He told me he loved me. He said he would take me to Saudi Arabia when I was 15 and marry me. I believed him at the time.'' 

On one occasion, she threatened him with a lock knife after he raped her in a bathroom. Her punishment was being hit across the head with a baseball bat and assaulted with its metal handle.

Girl D said when she was 12 and a half, she was taken to a flat and prepared to have group sex with at least four men. 

"I remember being lifted onto a kitchen table. I had sex with all of them, four of them.'' Girl D, now 19, said that after that she was taken two or three times a week to High Wycombe for "sex parties''.

Girl E is still only 16. She became involved with one of the men when she was 12 and was then introduced to others. She woke up one day in bed with two men - but could not remember how she got there. 

Girl F went around with girl E and became involved with older men.