Child sex abuse trial: Alleged victim "made up" rape claims

Ex-boxer Waleed Ali (34) is charged with rape and indecently assaulting the girl in 2003 in Boots alleyway and Clifton Park when he was aged 19 to 20.

He is on trial with seven other men charged with sexually exploiting the girl, now 27.

All the men deny the offences.

Asked about the sexual abuse claims by his barrister, Mr Mohammed Qazi, Ali answered: “100 per cent didn’t happen.”

He added he believed she had made the allegations up because he didn’t get on with her former partner and said he had not mentioned this to police in his two interviews in 2015 or in his prepared statement because he had been in shock.

The court has previously heard the complainant’s mother found the name Waleed in her daughter's phone in 2003 when she had concerns her daughter was being exploited by older Asian males.

The mother said she rang the number and asked if the person on the other end was Waleed, to which the person responded with: “Yo”, and told her: “I've not done owt”.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, warehouse worker Ali denied he “hung around”  with 13- to 14 year-old girls when he was aged 19 to 20 and claimed the girl had got his number from amateur boxing posters which he used to distribute to promote his own fights.

He claims he met the complainant in Rotherham bus station in 2003, she approached him and said she was interested in watching the boxing and told him it was her mum who had called him.

Ali said he did not know how old the girl was.

The defendant said the girl’s mother had rung him and asked if he knew certain Pakistani-sounding, male names, but he did not.

The defendant claims the girl and her parents would regularly call him to ask him about his boxing career but said he had never seen the girl in person again until around 2006 in a Rotherham nightclub, after which they kept in touch until 2011.

Ali also claimed he and the complainant visited Manchester in 2008 and celebrated her 18th birthday with her family — all of which the complainant denied in her evidence.

Miss Michelle Colborne, prosecuting, asked if he had ever questioned at the time why this mother was asking him about other men and Ali answered he didn't feel it was any of his business to ask.

The prosecutor added: “You knew the girl was 13 because you had been warned and that’s why you said: ‘I've not done owt’.”

Miss Colborne asked if Ali thought it was odd a woman he claims he didn’t know and whose daughter he hadn’t yet met, had rung him and started asking about men’s names.

Ali answered: “I knew something was going off in Rotherham because the paper was bringing stuff up.

“I don’t know the full story, I can’t recall that, I knew something was going off, but I had no idea what was happening.”

He added there were stories in the paper every week.

Miss Colborne said: “Are you trying to say that you had suspicions that this mother was talking about some form of child abuse?”

He responded: “I can’t recall that.”

Miss Colborne said Ali raped the girl in an alleyway and he was a violent person.

He said: “I have never been a nasty person.”

The prosecutor revealed Ali had two previous convictions for assault in 2006 after attacking a doorman and spitting in a bus driver’s face “because he didn’t have enough money to get on the bus” and a 2010 conviction for failing to stop after an accident.

Ali had previously told the court he only had one conviction and admitted under-cross examination he did know co-defendants Asif Ali and Sageer Hussain in 2003.

He had previously stated the only co-defendants he knew were Ishtiaq Khaliq and Masoued Malik because they watched him box in around 2004.

He said he had seen Sageer’s name in the paper back then but could not recall why.

Miss Colborne said: “You know a lot about things, but you have no detail.

“Are you withholding what you actually know?”

He answered that he had always been “working and training and kept himself to himself”.

The trial continues.