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Woman 'provided girls to be raped by East Lancashire gang'
8:56am Wednesday 6th July 2011

PrintEmailShare By Wendy Barlow »
Court reporter

A 19-year-old woman provided two ‘terrified’ Blackburn girls for a gang of men to rape, a jury was told.

Stephanie Knight lured the 16 year-olds to a dark, derelict house in Accrington where three men carried out repeated attacks, the court heard.

Knight had set the trap for the sexual gratification of ‘her boys’, the jury was told.

After a mobile phone call in which Knight said she had ‘got them’, the girls were collected and plied with drink and drugs, the court heard.

The prosecution said one of the teenagers was repeatedly raped in different rooms of the house in Craven Street, the court heard.

The jury was told the men took it in turns to abuse her, while the second girl was subjected to a sex act and rape in a car.

Knight, of Preston New Road, Blackburn, Shahid Hussain, 37, of Drake Street, Butt, 39, of St Albans Street, both Rochdale and Amjad Hussain, 34, of Sharples Street, Accrington, deny all the charges.

Nick Courtney, prosecuting, told Burnley Crown Court Knight, then aged 17, had invited the girls out for the evening on December 5.

Mr Courtney told the court Knight was said to have received a phone call and spoke on her mobile, saying she had ‘got them’.

At about 10pm, they were picked up by Amjad Hussain, driven from Blackburn to Accrington, and then got into a large 4x4 vehicle with Butt at the wheel, the jury was told.

Both girls made the men aware they were 16, Mr Courtney said.

Drink was bought in Accrington and the car was then driven to the Asda at Burnley, where it was captured on CCTV.

Amjad Hussain added vodka to some bottles of Coca Cola before giving them to the girls, who were also given drugs to smoke, the court heard.

The first girl would say she felt ‘smashed’ and the second girl that she was drunk.

Mr Courtney said the girls were then taken to the empty terrace house where Shahid Hussain had already arrived.

All the lights were off and there was no furniture.

The barrister said: “In the house the prosecution allege Shahid Hussain, Tanveer Butt and Amjad Hussain subjected the first girl to a terrifying ordeal."

The prosecutor said the first assault happened when one of the girls went upstairs to use the bathroom.

Butt went in, refused to leave and forced her to give him oral sex, the jury was told.

The court heard that when she came out of the room, the Hussain brothers were on the landing, and she was dragged into a bedroom by Shahid Hussain, who slid a wardrobe against the door and raped her.

The girl shouted for the second girl but Knight and Butt prevented her from going to her by stopping her on the stairs, Mr Courtney said.

Knight told the girl that her friend was ‘chilling’, the jury was told.

Amjad Hussain took the first girl into the attic, gave her another cannabis joint and forced her, whilst she was crying, to perform a sex act, the jury was told.

Mr Courtney said Butt then raped her again.

Knight is also alleged to have threatened the frightened second girl when she refused to perform sex acts on the men.

The prosecutor told the jury the two girls were taken home in the early hours by Amjad Hussain.

In the car, he orally raped them both and committed a sex act on the second girl after pulling a knife on her, the court heard.

Mr Courtney said the alleged victims made complaints to the police that day.

The first girl was found to be cut and bruised when she was medically examined. The defendants were arrested.

Amjad Hussain claimed he had been with the girls on that night and had consensual sexual encounters with each of them.

Knight's case was that oral sexual activity was consensual and she told police she did not get the girls to go there so the men at the house could rape them.

Knight, who told officers she was Amjad Hussain's girlfriend, was said to have referred to the defendants as her ‘boys’.

Amjad Hussain claimed he had been with the girls on that night and had consensual sexual encounters with each of them.

Knight's case was that oral sexual activity was consensual and she told police she did not get the girls to go there so the men at the house could rape them.

Mr Courtney said :"The other two defendants' case is that they were not with Amjad Hussain, Stephanie Knight and the complainants that night and that they had never met either of the complainants, let alone been involved in any sex of any kind with them."

Mr Courtney said: “The defendants' accounts in interview are untrue.

"The agreement was that Stephanie Knight would provide girls for the defendants to have non consensual sex with that night."

All four defendantsl deny two counts of conspiracy to rape, between December 4 and 7, 2009.

Butt also pleads not guilty to three charges of rape against one of the girls and aiding and abetting Shahid Hussain to rape her.

Knight denies aiding and abetting rape, Shahid Hussain pleads not guilty to three counts of rape against the girl and Amjad Hussain denies two allegations of raping the girl and rape and assault by penetration against the second girl