Child sex abuse trial: Defendant’s shock at “heart-breaking” Panorama claims

Basharat Hussain said on a trip to Blackpool in September 2014 for his birthday he saw the BBC Panorama programme about his brother Arshid Hussain, which had affected him a lot.

Hussain said: “It’s heartbreaking to see your brother on TV and getting accused.”

The defendant is accused of sex offences against a woman he travelled to Blackpool with, but claims they were in a relationship.

Miss Gillian Batts, defending Basharat Hussain, asked him: “When you were in Blackpool what did the two of you decide about your future.”

He said they had decided to leave the UK, get a place abroad somewhere “neutral away from her family and mine”.

Hussain was first interviewed by police in November 2014.

In March 2015, Hussain said, he went on holiday to Pakistan with his family for a month, returned to the UK for ten days and discovered police had been making enquiries about him.

He said he “panicked”, did not think it was right the police were speaking to people and flew back to Pakistan.

It was revealed in the agreed facts document read out in court on Wednesday that Hussain had left the UK to Pakistan on a one way ticket on May 18 last year.

He told the court that he had always intended to come back and had rung South Yorkshire Police to tell them the date he was returning.

He was subsequently arrested in August 2015 at Manchester Airport.

Hussain is due to be cross-examined this afternoon.

Basharat Hussain denies all 15 charges against him.

The trial continues.