Child sex abuse trial: Alleged victim’s “memory jogged” by Risky Business' Jayne Senior

A WOMAN who claims said she and her sister were forced to work as prostitutes by brothers Basharat and Arshid Hussain was criticised by defence lawyers for having to be reminded to talk about her alleged ordeal by anti-abuse worker Jayne Senior.

The 32-year-old woman told the police she and her sister had been driven from Rotherham to Sheffield by the pair and forced to have sex with men while the brothers waited and collected payment.

The allegation came to light in the woman’s second police interview, after she had spoken with Mrs Senior (pictured), who had accompanied her to the police station.

Mrs Senior was manager of the Risky Business anti-abuse project before it was scrapped by Rotherham Council in 2011.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that at the start of the second interview, the woman said that “It was a huge part, they used to take us up to Sheffield.”

But Mr Tahir Khan, for Arshid and Miss Gillian Batts, for Basharat, both asked under cross-examination why the woman had not told police about in her first interview on the same day in March 2014.

Mr Khan said: “Between the two interviews you had spoken to Jayne Senior and she had jogged your memory."

She answered: “It was like opening up Pandora's Box, you don’t want to remember all the bad things in there, it refreshed and jogged my memory.”

Mr Khan replied: “Why didn't you say it in the first interview?”

The alleged victim said: “When I first went to these interviews I thought it was about me being in care, about how I got treated in care.

“I had not been properly briefed by Jayne.”

The woman said that after the first interview ended, youth worker Mrs Senior had said  to her: “You really need to remember what happened to you” and “Are you ready to talk about Sheffield?”

Mrs Senior was not present in the police interviews.

The witness told Mr Khan: “I didn’t want to unlock my memories but I did.

“I went back in there and told them my bit.”

Mr Khan said the woman had fabricated the story.

The woman said Mrs Senior was the only person she trusted and when she was a 14-year-old prostitute Mrs Senior would take her and her sister off the Sheffield streets and back to her mum'’s or to a children’s home.

Mr Khan said he had only found one mention of Mad Ash who the prosecution say is Arshid, on files supplied to him from Risky Business notes Mrs Senior had made, which was dated July 2000.

Mrs Senior’s note read that the then-17-year-old girl “had been taken to Halifax by Mad Ash but did not say why”.

Miss Batts also asked why the woman had spoken with a solicitor about being a victim of abuse.

She answered: “I was a victim in care, I wanted them to get the truth out about what really did happen, people had lost files, lost this, lost that.

“I wanted people to know the truth, people don’t listen to people like me, but they listen to solicitors.”

Miss Batts said: "Have you made a claim against Rotherham Borough Council?”

The witness answered: “No, I told the solicitor to stop it, I just want people to know the truth.”

Miss Batts said the woman was getting Basharat and his other brother Bannaras confused, which the woman denied.

Miss Batts concluded: “Were you asked to attend an identity parade to identify Basharat?”

The complainant replied: “No.”

The Hussain brothers, as well as three other men and two women, deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues.