Rotherham abuse trial: Defendant was police cadet around time of alleged offences

Taxi driver Sajid Bostan told Sheffield Crown Court he was the ‘eyes and ears’ of the police as a teenage cadet and had hoped to join the force.

Bostan, 38, of Sherwood Crescent, Rotherham, denies three rapes, two counts of aiding and abetting rape, one indecent assault and one other serious sexual assault in relation to one complainant, Girl B, who is now 36.

The offences are mainly said to have occurred between during the 1990s, when Bostan was a teenager.

The prosecution allege Bostan and co-defendant Arshid Hussain worked ‘as a team’ to sexually abuse the underage girl, who lived in care. It is also alleged that on one occasion the two defendants raped her at the Prince of Wales hotel, an assault in which she believes her child was conceived.

It is also alleged Bostan was present when the same woman was forced to perform a sex act on his brother Majid Bostan, who denies a charge of indecent assault.

Giving evidence in the dock, Bostan said he had a ‘fling’ with the woman after they first met in 2000 when he was a nightclub doorman, but said he had not known the woman before then.

Bostan said that he had done work experience with South Yorkshire Police in 1993 when he was still at school and had later joined the police cadets, with the role involving patrolling Rotherham town centre with officers.

“You were the extra eyes and ears for the police,” he said.

He said he voluntarily resigned from the cadets in 1996 after being charged with two counts of affray, offences he was later convicted of and given a discharge for.

Bostan said as well as working as a nightclub doorman and a taxi driver, he also worked in HMP Doncaster around 2000 and 2001.

He said he first met Girl B when he was working at Zone nightclub in Rotherham and she was on a night out with friends.

Bostan said they began an affair as he was married with children.

He said she had become ‘possessive’ and wanted him to leave his wife, resulting in him ending their affair.

“She didn’t take that very nicely,” he said.

Bostan said he had not seen the woman for years and when he was arrested in March 2015 offered to provide DNA samples to prove her child was not his.

He said he had not discussed the woman’s childhood with her during their time together.

Bostan initially told the court he did not know Arshid Hussain, but under cross-examination accepted he had told the police in interview he had known who he was.

Bostan said: “I knew of him, but to say I knew him - no.”

Michelle Colborne QC, prosecuting, said the woman had been taking heroin at the time Bostan said he had met her and asked him whether he thought she was vulnerable.

He said he had not been aware she was on heroin and had been ‘bubbly’.

Bostan said: “I loved her, I cared about her - that is the God’s honest truth.

“We were both in love with each other.”

Ms Colborne said the reason Bostan had never spoken to the woman about her past was because he already ‘knew everything about it’.

She said: “That is why there was no need to discuss her having been in children’s homes as you knew it already.”

Bostan said: “No, I didn’t.”

Ms Colborne said Bostan was ‘well-brought up’ and was a ‘good boy’ who went to mosque and had got married.

She said: “You did the right thing, did as you were told. Why in your life of toeing the line, would you risk everything for that woman?

“You weren’t risking anything going back to what you already knew.”

Bostan said this was not the case.

“The first time I met her was in the nightclub,” he said.

He said neither himself or his brother had been involved in any offences against her.

“If she has been abused, she has not been abused by me or my brother,” he said.

He said he had never been to the Prince of Wales pub, where one of the alleged rapes took place.

Lawyers for Majid Bostan and Shelley Davies also told the court their clients had decided not to give evidence in their defence.

Majid Bostan, 37, of Ledsham Road, Broom, Rotherham, denies one indecent assault and

Davies, 40, of Wainwright Road, Kimberworth Park, Rotherham, denies conspiracy to procure a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute and false imprisonment.

The trial continues.