BULLFINCH: Dad ‘outraged’ over sex grooming claim (From Gazette & Herald)

BULLFINCH: Dad ‘outraged’ over sex grooming claim

10:00am Friday 5th April 2013 in Entertainment News By Ben Wilkinson, Crime Reporter. Call me on (01865) 425427

A MARRIED dad-of-four has told the Old Bailey he only met a girl twice before she accused him of grooming, drugging, and violently sexually abusing her.

Mohammed Karrar said he was “outraged” at the allegations and said they were a “product of a fertile imagination”.

The 38-year-old is one of nine men who deny involvement in an alleged child prostitution ring in Oxford.

Karrar, who began giving evidence yesterday, is accused of giving drugs to complainants known as Girl 3 and 4 and trafficking them across the country to have sex for money. He faces 18 charges.

Girl 4 claims he raped her from the age of 11, injected her with heroin, sexually assaulted her with a baseball bat, arranged for her to be gang raped, and made her have an illegal abortion when he got her pregnant aged 12.

But Karrar told the jury: “I have no idea why they are making up these allegations.”

He said he had perhaps been mistaken for another “Mo”.

Karrar also denied buying Girl 4 presents, making her dress up in a nurse’s uniform, and using sex toys on her. He also said he had never raped her with his brother Bassam Karrar at the same time.

Prosecutor Noel Lucas said he must have been “horrified” and “outraged” by the accusations.Karrar replied: “Something like that, yeah.”

He told the jury he only met Girl 4 twice and suspected she had stolen from his wallet. He said later she and a friend threatened to tell police he had raped her unless he gave them £500.

Karrar agreed when prosecutor Mr Lucas asked him if he thought the evidence given by the girls for “days on end” was all lies, asking: “Nothing more than a product of a fertile imagination?”

He denied lying when Mr Lucas said: “It’s nonsense isn’t it Mr Karrar? You are lying through your teeth.”

Karrar lived in a Riverside Court studio flat in supported accommodation and has three children by his wife and one by another woman while his wife was pregnant.

Girl 3 claims Karrar gave her drugs, had her raped and sold her for sex between the ages of 13 and 15. However, Karrar told the jury she had approached him on the towpath by his flat and offered to sell him Class A drugs.

Karrar said the girl had come to a friend’s flat three times while he was there, and said she had smoked crack. He admitted she performed a sex act on him but said she told him she was 20.

But Mr Lucas said he must have known she was underage. Showing him a photograph of the girl a year before the incident, he said: “She’s a baby Mr Karrar, isn’t she?”

Karrar denied it when Mr Lucas said he had known defendants Akhtar and Anjum Dogar since 2004. Mr Lucas said: “You were a part of a group of people associating with the Dogars all of whom had an interest in young girls.” Karrar again denied it.

The defendants deny all charges.

The trial continues.