Child sex abuse trial: Rotherham councillor "arranged deal to help abuser escape arrest"

A complainant in the ongoing child sex abuse trial in Rotherham alleges the “deal” took place when she had gone missing from home with defendant Arshid Hussain when she was a teenager.

The girl, now a woman aged 30, was made pregnant by Hussain when she was 15.

He faces four sexual abuse charges against her and two abduction charges between 1999 and 2001.

The woman said Mr Akhtar had rung Hussain and told her he had to take her home, and then they drove to a petrol station to meet police.

Defending Arshid Hussain, Mr Stephen Uttley, asked the woman to talk more about the incident she had told police about in an interview involving “PC Ali and Jahangir Akhtar at a petrol station”.

Mr Uttley said: “In your first interview you were saying Mr Hussain was on the phone to PC Ali and dropped you off at petrol station, and there was quite a lot of people there including Mr Akhtar, do you stand by that.”

The woman answered: “Yes.”

Mr Uttley said this was a date in time when the girl was missing from home.

The woman said: “I remember a lot of police officers being there and Akhtar, and Ash got told to fetch me back and he wouldn’t get done.”

The woman said she could not remember if PC Ali had been at the petrol station as there had been a lot of officers in uniform, but remembers Hussain being in a phone box talking to him prior to it.

Mr Uttley said: “You say Mr Akhtar was there and you were taken home.

“The police have checked the pocket books of PC Ali and his colleagues, there does not appear to be any mention of that day.”

The woman answered: “I never said PC Ali were on shift, we just used to deal with him all the time.”

The woman said she always used to see PC Ali out and about.

She added: “He was always really nice, there were not many officers that were nice to me but he always were.”

Mr Uttley asked if she was “aware PC Ali was tragically killed earlier last year” and she replied: “Yes”.

Mr Uttley said this meant the court couldn't hear from him on the matter, to which the woman replied: “I did my statements before that happened, so they could have had the chance to question him.”

The woman admitted she had never met Mr Akhtar before the alleged petrol station handover and only knew it was him “because Ash told me”.

The woman said the only other contact she had after that with Mr Akhtar was around 2006 or 2007 during a phone call when she was trying to find out where Ash was.

She said: “Akhtar asked how I were and said: ‘Do you know about Ash’s accident?’

“He said: ‘I will pass your message on, but I only see him at weddings and funerals’.

Hussain denies 29 offences, including rape and false imprisonment.

The trial continues.