Sheffield schoolgirl, 14, intimidated into exchanging sexual favours for drink and drugs

A 14-year-old girl was intimidated into exchanging sexual favours for drink and drugs, under the pretense of a relationship she thought would help her to escape her home life, a court heard.
Matthew WhiteleyMatthew Whiteley
Matthew Whiteley

Sheffield Crown Court was told how Girl D met Matthew Whiteley, 24, and Shane Whiteley, 29 at Rotherham bus station in 2008, and soon struck up a friendship with the pair.

The young girl, who prosecutor Peter Brampton has described as having an ‘itinerant’ lifestyle, said Shane and Matthew, both of Weakland Crescent, Hackenthorpe began inviting her to their bedsit in Pitsmoor where she would be given beer, cannabis and amphetamines.

Shane WhiteleyShane Whiteley
Shane Whiteley
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During a police interview in 2015, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Girl D said she initially thought she was being given drink and drugs by the two Whiteley brothers because she was their friend and they were ‘looking out’ for her.

However she says this soon changed, and she felt there was an expectation to provide sexual favours for the alcohol and drugs she had taken.

She said: “At the time you think they’re being your friends but what you don’t realise is that when the drink and the drugs are gone, that’s when you have got to do what they say.

"I knew what kind of people they were, I was afraid of saying no to them.”

Shane WhiteleyShane Whiteley
Shane Whiteley
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Girl D told police that shortly after meeting the Whiteley brothers, Matthew began telling her he wanted to be in a relationship with her, which she says she regarded as a way of ‘escaping’ a home life that saw her living ‘here, there and everywhere’.

She said: “I thought he loved me, that he wanted to be with me.”

Girl D recalls waking up at the bedsit on one occasion naked on the sofa in the bedsit after drinking, with a belief one of the Whiteley brothers had sex with her - but with no memory of consenting.

Girl D says she also had consensual sex with Matthew Whiteley twice, who she says knew her to be 14 at the time.

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On the last occasion she visited the Whiteleys flat it is alleged she was robbed of her trainers and her jewelry.

The Whiteley brothers are among six defendants charged with 42 offences relating to nine alleged victims of exploitation from Sheffield.

The defendants deny all charges.

The trial continues.