South Yorkshire Police 'failed to act' over girl's rape claims
A girl who was sexually exploited by a gang that used her as a "piece of meat" found police took "no effective action" to stop it, a court heard.
Nine men deny raping the teenager in Sheffield. Prosecutors said she was used as "an object" and abused by the gang between 2010 and 2012. The girl alerted South Yorkshire Police in 2011 but no investigation was carried out or crime recorded, Sheffield Crown Court heard. Jurors were told the force "did nothing more than submit an intelligence report" about her claims that she was being raped and used for underage sex. Prosecutor Peter Hampton said: "When [she] did tell the authorities, she found no effective action was taken to stop it." 'Target on her back' Mr Hampton said the girl first disclosed some of what had happened to her when she was interviewed by officers in 2011, aged 15. He told the court the complainant distrusted the authorities and that despite telling police about one rape and another "incident of sex with adult men as a minor", "no crime was recorded by the force and no investigation, in reality, followed." The offences were said to have happened when the girl was drunk or on drugs supplied to her by the defendants. "On other occasions [she] was forcibly raped," said Mr Hampton, adding she was then "still in the grip of exploitation" of a woman who had introduced her to some of the people who raped her. More Yorkshire stories The girl grew up in East Yorkshire and her mother died when she was 13, the court heard. She was eventually taken into local authority care as her life "descended into chaos". Mr Hampton said she was "already broken" by the time she "fell into the clutches of these [men] and others who abused and exploited her". He said: "She may as well have had a target on her back as far as those who were criminally-minded were concerned." The current trial is the result of a police investigation started in 2016. The defendants, eight of whom are Kurdish, are: A tenth man, Saba Mohammed, of Faranden Road, Sheffield, denies a single charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The trial continues. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.