Child sex abuse trial: Basharat Hussain denies abusing schoolgirl

Cross-examining the suspect at the ongoing CSE trial at Sheffield Crown Court, Ms Michelle Colborne, prosecuting, asked Hussain why three women he says he has never met - as well as women he began relationships with when they were aged 15-16 - allege disturbing abuse,

He answered: "I really don't know why."

She said: "If I suggest they have got it right, you were a pimp, a drug dealer, a violent thug; you would say that's a lie?"

He answered: "Yes."

The women all claimed Hussain was violent or sexually degrading towards them. 

Ms Colborne said there were six other women the jury has heard from who all also alleged Hussain’s brother Arshid Hussain subjected them to sexually degrading or violent incidents.

Hussain told the court he was at a complete loss as to why the women were saying this.

When asked a question about his brother, Hussain answered: "As far as I am concerned he is my brother, he can give his own evidence."

Ms Colborne told him she would be asking him questions relevant to the case.

She asked him why he began hanging around with schoolgirls aged 13 to 15 when he was in his early twenties when he had given up university and come back to run a family business.

Hussain said he met the group of schoolgirls - some of whom are alleged victims of Arshid and Basharat - because they would hand out leaflets for his family business.

He admitted to beginning a relationship with one of the girls when she was 15 in 1997, but said they did not have sex for eight months until her 16th birthday .

Ms Colborne said he was lying and that the girl performed oral sex on him when she was 15, and asked: "Eight months of just kissing as an adult 21-year-old man?"

Hussain replied: "Yes."

Ms Colborne said: "What was the attraction? Was it because she was a schoolgirl?" to which Hussain said "no".

She asked: "What could a schoolgirl offer to an adult business man?"

He replied: "At 15 she didn't look 15...it started off as friends."

Ms Colborne said: "You didn't push her because she was special, and that's what you always told her."

She added this woman was such a "gentle soul" and that she was used as a foil so Hussain could store guns and drugs at her parents’ home as police would never suspect to look there.

Ms Colborne said: "Did you talk about her homework and you had a business to run, was that the common interest?

Hussain said: "No."

Ms Colborne replied: "It was young, innocent sex, that's what you wanted."

Ms Colborne said while Hussain waited these "long eight-months" for her to turn 16 he got his sexual pleasure from another 14-year-old girl who lived near him - an alleged victim Hussain claims he does not know.

Ms Colborne said Hussain and Arshid forced the “vulnerable” 14-year-old girl and her sister into having sex with them and others, a claim which he denied.

Another of Hussain's alleged victims claims he forced her to perform oral sex on him after picking her up from Studmoor Road Children's Home when she was 12, and trafficked her for sex to Blackpool aged 16.

Ms Colborne said the woman was placed in the care home the same summer Hussain moved back to the area.

She added: "She was going missing a great deal over these months and you were having sex with her on a regular basis, including oral sex."

Hussain said it was not true and he did not know the woman.

Ms Colborne said: "Is it because she isn't special to you? Another lost child from a children's home."

The prosecutor asked why a second woman would also accuse him of making her handle guns and drugs, adding: "They don't just say this, these women that don't know each other, they both say that they were being prostituted by you and by Arshid."

He replied: "OK."

Ms Colborne asked: "Are you accepting that's true?"

He answered: "No, it's not true."

Ms Colborne said he and Arshid used an "unoccupied, seedy, dirty flat" at Clough Road, which his dad owned, to take girls and invite Asian men.

He denied he would take "mates" there.

The defendant admitted in the past he had been violent but said he had done his time in prison for it.

Hussain said he did know any corrupt police officers and had never asked any to search the national database for him.

When asked if he knew PC Kenneth Dawes he said "yes because he was well known in the area".

Hussain denies 15 offences, the trial continues.