CSE trial: Barristers claim rape accused men 'wrongly identified'

Nabeel Kurshid (34), of Weetwood Road, Rotherham, and Iqlak Yousaf (34), of Tooker Road, Rotherham, are accused of raping the girl between 2002 and 2003 when she was 14 or 15.

The prosecution say Yousaf was known as Iqqy and Kurshid as Nabby.

Another unidentified man, known as Shiraz, is also said to have been involved in the rape which allegedly occurred in a lay-by near Sherwood Forest. 

After the incident, the woman became pregnant and had a termination.

The pair are on trial at Sheffield Crown Court alongside six other men who are accused of 28 child sexual exploitation offences against five girls.

The woman, now aged 31, said she was confident she had identified the right men.

Ms Julia Smart, defending Kurshid, who she said was also known as Nabeel Akhtar Kurshid, claims the complainant has wrongly identified her client after seeing his Facebook account, which was under the name Nabeel Akhtar.

The woman disputed this and said the Nabby from her teenage years and the “Facebook Nabby” are the same person, adding: “I would never forget.”

Mr David McGonigal, defending for Yousaf (pictured below), said to the woman: “You told police that your memory had been affected by some drugs you had become addicted to and you took a lot of when you were 16 to 17 — cannabis and amphetamine.”

The woman replied: “Specific little details, the main bits, I never forget. 

“It was just tiniest details — descriptions of body parts, scars, that were not coming back to me.”

Mr McGonigal suggested she had met Yousaf in 2004 — after the Sherwood Forest incident — while he was working as a taxi driver — which the woman denied.

Mr McGonigal said: “Are you mixing him up?”

She replied: “Everything I am saying is correct.”

Describing the Sherwood Forest incident, she said: “I felt like they had gone through me like one after another. I was taken advantage of.”

Mr McGonigal said: “During this incident you said you hadn’t had alcohol but had taken cannabis. 

“You were able to decide you were able to have sex with Nabby, able to get out the car. 

“You say he took you for a walk and then you knew what he wanted and you laid down and had sex.”

The woman answered: “Yes.”

Mr McGonigal said: “You were not so comatose you didn’t know what was going on?”

She said: “Yes that’s correct.”

He said: “The next person has laid down with you — you have not said you didn’t want to have sex.”

She replied: “I didn’t say anything.”

He said: “When you first spoke to police in 2017, you didn’t really describe the incident as rape and you felt words were being put in your mouth.”

She replied: “I still don’t describe it as rape. I still don’t describe it as grooming.”

The barrister added: “You have made a mistake in relation to identifying Iqqy as the person you slept with and took you to Sherwood Forest.”

She answered: “I made no mistake. I am confident this is the person from the incident.”

Re-examining the woman, prosecutor Ms Michelle Colborne, asked: “How quickly after Nabby got off was the next man there?”

She replied: “Not even a minute.”

Ms Colborne said: “Did any of these men ask to have sex with you.”

She replied: “Not the second two, no.”

The trial continues.