Policeman ‘called alleged Rotherham victim, 12, a liar and ripped up paperwork’

A police officer called a 12-year-old girl attempting to report she was being abused a liar and then ripped up paperwork in front of her, a court heard.
Rotherham town centreRotherham town centre
Rotherham town centre

The woman, who is now 31, told Sheffield Crown Court that her abuse had first started at around 12 years old when she was living in a children’s home in the Rotherham area.

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She gave evidence as the trial of five men and seven woman accused of playing roles in a child grooming gang in Rotherham for more than 10 years continued.

The woman said that after reporting what was happening to her to a staff member at the children’s home where she was living, she was told to speak to a police officer who used to visit the facility.

She said the officer took her out of the home in a car to discuss the matter.

The woman said the officer pulled the car over in a country lane.

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She said: “He ripped up loads of paperwork and said I was lying.”

The woman said she did not know what had been on the pieces of paper. She said she did not know the officer’s name but he was known by girls at the home as ‘Kimble the Thimble’.

The complainant had previously told the court that when she was about 12 years old, defendant Basharat Hussain – known as ‘Bash’ – had picked her up with another older girl from the children’s home in a car carrying two other Asian men.

The complainant said Hussain had asked a member of staff if he could bring the girls back later that night and was given permission to.

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She said: “Bash said to a member of staff ‘is it all right to bring her back at 11?’. They said ‘yeah’.”

She said after being taken out for a meal at a restaurant in Rotherham town centre, the other girl left the restaurant with someone else and she was driven back to the home by Hussain.

The woman said Hussain pulled the car over and she was then made to perform sex acts on each of the three men.

When she was 16 and living in a hostel, the girl was taken to Blackpool by ‘two lads who hung about with us and said Bash wanted us to drop something off’.

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She said she was locked in a room above a restaurant and made to have sex with different men, including the restaurant owner and his son, for several months.

When she was eventually rescued and brought back to South Yorkshire, the girl was discovered to be suffering from scabies, nits, chlamydia and gonorrhoea due to the conditions she had been kept in.

Gillian Batts, representing Hussain, said her client says the woman had never met him in person.

In relation to this complainant, Basharat Hussain, 39, of no fixed address, denies three counts of indecency with a child and one count of procuring a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute.