The jury at the Rotherham abuse trial has heard that having confronted him about his relationship with his daughter, the father of a 14-year-old girl ended up in a fight with the central defendant.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how the father of one of the 12 complainants in the trial of five men and two women accused of historic child sexual exploitation crimes in Rotherham, made multiple attempts to stop his daughter’s contact with defendant Arshid ‘Ash’ Hussain. On such occasion, reports the Sheffield Telegraph, he was confronted by Mr. Hussain’s family.
The father of the complainant, now a 30-year-old woman known in court as Girl J, spoke of how her behaviour had changed when she reached the age of 14. On one occasion she failed to return home at the correct time of night so her father went out to find her. Police officers found her with Mr. Hussain.
After that it reached a stage where Girl J’s family felt they “couldn’t do anything with her” as she took to running away from home. He father elected to go to work late in order to drop her off at school, but without success as the court heard she would simply “go straight through school” to meet Mr. Hussain at a place where he was waiting for her.
Matters reportedly came to a head when Girl J’s father heard a mobile telephone ringing under her bed. He told the court:
“I answered it and it were him, it were Ash. I told him to meet me somewhere because I wanted to sort it out. He said ‘I’m not going anywhere because you will just turn up with all your mates’.”
Quizzed as to why he wanted to confront Mr. Hussain, Girl J’s father replied:
“He were a 27-year-old married man seeing a 14-year-old lass. I just wanted to see him in a car park and he wouldn’t come.”
Eventually he got to meet Mr. Hussain outside his family home. He explained:
“When I got there, his father, his brothers, quite a few others were all there waiting.
“I said I have come to speak to Ash. His car was on the drive. I knocked on the door but there were no answer.
“His dad said ‘Why didn’t you come and see me, we could have sorted it out’. I said ‘What’s the point, what you going to do, ground him?’
Soon after Mr. Hussain “came charging out the house”. Girl J’s father says that before others broke up the fight in the front garden his lip was split, his shirt ripped and he lost a gold chain.
On another occasion he chased Mr. Hussain in his car, believing Girl J was with him. When he caught up she had been dropped off already and her father merely “warned him again to keep away”.
Girl J’s sister also told the court how Mr. Hussain “ripped apart” her family. She recalled:
“My dad used to drive round every night, go to hotels giving her picture out, saying ‘Had they seen her?’
“He used to do it until the early hours while my mum were in bed crying. It was every night for two years.”
She once spoke to Mr. Hussain’s brother on the telephone:
“I said if she weren’t home in the next hour I was ringing the police and reporting Ash for kidnapping and rape. He said I was a little white slag.
“I said if she is not home in 10 minutes he is going to be done for rape. She was home in 10 minutes.”
She said her sister’s actions during that time were controlled by Mr. Hussain, adding:
“It were like a spell. I have never seen anything like it before.”
Girl J’s sister told the court threats of torture, kidnapping, rape and arson were made towards her and her mother via her sister.
Mr. Hussain, now 40, denies a charge of rape, three of indecent assault and two of abduction in relation to Girl J who alleges she started having sex with him when she was just 14. She says she twice fell pregnant by him, and he accepts fathering one child with her but claims that he believed she was 18 when they met.
The trial continues.
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