A MAN accused of raping a teenage girl in the cellar of his clothing shop has told a court he never even went down to the basement.
Prosecutors claim two vulnerable girls, from the age of 13, were treated as "sex slaves" by a group of men in Rochdale between 2001 and 2006. The girls were allegedly given drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Seven men are currently on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court facing charges of sexual exploitation.
Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Mohammed Zahid, 64, are accused of repeatedly raping one of the girls on a dirty mattress in what prosecutors described as the "grim, cold, dark" basement of Ahmed's former shop in Rochdale town centre.
Taking the stand, Ahmed strongly denied the allegations, claiming he never used the basement because it was filled with rubbish left by the previous shop owner.
"When I opened the door, because of the presence of so much rubbish and the smell from the damp, I would quickly close the door again. It was extremely bad," he told the court.
Ahmed also stated he had never seen a mattress in the shop.
The defendant admitted that one of the teenagers, referred to in court as Girl B, had visited his shop previously with Rochdale Market stallholders Zahid and Kasir Bashir, who would sometimes mind his premises when he collected supplies.
Ahmed told jurors that Girl B once came to his shop alone asking for money, saying: "She said that she needed £20. She said had problems with gas and electricity bills. I gave it to her."
He claimed that when she returned weeks later asking for more money and he refused, she became angry. "When I refused she swore at me a lot. Too much. She said, 'You are a dog'. I pushed her out of the shop," Ahmed testified.
The prosecution also alleged that Ahmed raped Girl B at a house in Chadderton. He denies all charges of rape and gross indecency.
The other defendants in the case also denied various sexual offences. They are Mohammed Zahid, of Crumpsall; Kasir Bashir, of Oldham; Naheem Akram, 48; Mohammed Shahzad, 44; Roheez Khan, 39, and Nisar Hussain, 41, all from Rochdale.
An eighth defendant, Arfan Khan, 41, was cleared last month when the prosecution offered no evidence against him. He had been charged with rape, conspiracy to commit indecency with a child and conspiracy to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
The trial continues.
Damian Talbot