Rotherham sexual abuse gang plied girls from children's home and called them 'fresh meat', jury told

A trial has begun over the alleged sexual assault of two girls who prosecutors say were abused several times a week over a period of six months in the South Yorkshire town by a gang of men who referred to them as "fresh meat.”

Prosecutor Gordon Stables told a jury at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday (January 29) that both the complainants were living in a children's home when they were befriended by Romulad Stefan Houphouet, who is now 37, Absolom Sigiyo, now 41, Jacek Brzozowski, now 35, "and also other associates".

Mr Stables said these were "all older men in their twenties, or thereabouts, whose sole intention was to engage in sexual activity with them, knowing they were under the age of consent".

The prosecutor said: "The defendants gained the girls' trust and confidence by plying them with alcohol and giving them cigarettes at house parties and offering them flirtatious attention."

Mr Stables said the girls were "given attention and made to feel wanted and grown-up" and “to maintain control over the girls, the defendants incited them to drink to excess."

He said: "The clear pre-meditated intention was to ensure that the girls entered into and remained in a state of compliance so that they would surrender easily and offer no resistance to the sexual advances and activity that would inevitably follow.

"Psychologically, the girls were made to feel that sexual activity was how they repaid the debt they owed the defendants for the provision of alcohol and tobacco.

"Once the males were sexually satisfied however, the girls were treated as having served their purpose - at least temporarily - and they were often then ignored and expected to make their own way home.

"In this way, [the girls] were sexually groomed within an environment of dependency."

The men reportedly referred to the girls as "fresh meat".

The prosecutor said the defendants "gave them what was otherwise absent in their lives, namely feelings of self-worth, attraction and a glimpse of an exciting way of life away from the horrors of previous experiences and the restrictions placed upon them at the children's home."

Mr Stables explained how Houphouet befriended the two girls in Rotherham town centre one evening more than 10 years ago and raped one of them in an alleyway on that night.

He said Houphouet took both girls the short distance to a house in the town and introduced them to Sigiyo "and other males who were undoubtedly present".

At the house Houphouet raped the same girl again and Sigiyo raped the other, the prosecutor said.

It became clear from the outset that Houphouet had picked one of the girls "as his victim" and Sigiyo had chosen the other, Mr Stables told the jury.

He said: "Regular sexual offending took place, principally at a residential address (in Rotherham), for approximately six months."

Jurors at Sheffield Crown Court were told the investigation into what happened to the two girls was part of Operation Stovewood, a wider police inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the South Yorkshire town.

Houphouet, of Burngreave, in Sheffield, denies four counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration.

Sigiyo, of Catcliffe, Rotherham, denies four counts of rape, one of attempted rape, one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and one of intimidation.

Brzozowski, of Rawmarsh, Rotherham, denies one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The jury heard he has admitted a charge of penetrative sexual activity with a child.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, continues today.