A boss of a children’s charity has told the Rotherham abuse trial there is “no truth whatsoever” in the allegation that she provided vulnerable girls to Asian men for sex.
Karen MacGregor, 58, faces three charges in relation to child sexual exploitation crimes in Rotherham, reports the Sheffield Star. Accused of conspiracy to procure a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute, false imprisonment and two counts of conspiracy to rape, the founder of the KinKids charity denies the charges levelled against her by two complainants.
Her defence barrister, Robert Wyn-Jones, asked Ms. MacGregor, to respond to the suggestion she had “been pimping girls from children’s homes over the years”.
“There is no truth in that whatsoever,” she replied, “there is no truth that I have pimped girls. Never ever have I pimped girls in my life. I have daughters of my own.”
Ms. MacGregor, whose charity campaigns for the rights of relatives who raise children no longer able to live with their parents, admitted that one of the complainants had indeed lived with her. Now 43 years old, the alleged victim known at trial as Girl A said Ms. MacGregor had helped carry her up some stairs while she was drunk, after which she woke up to being being sexually assaulted by an Asian man.
Ms. MacGregor told the jury she did not remember ever having met her second accuser. Known in court as Girl B she says when she was a teenager she lived with Ms. MacGregor and was made to have sex with Asian men in return for being given heroin.
Mr. Wyn-Jones said there was a report from one children’s home that in 1995 staff found Ms. MacGregor in Girl B’s room “with an Asian man at the window”. Saying she had no memory of the specific incident, Ms. MacGregor admitted she sometimes used to “help” people adding: “Perhaps somebody needed help.”
As to the identity of the unknown “man at the window”, she suggested he could have been her “very controlling” boyfriend.
Responding to a question as to whether the girls she cared for from children’s homes and homeless hostels “were particularly vulnerable” she replied:
“I would think anybody who doesn’t live with their parents is particularly vulnerable. I felt they needed looking after. We are talking about basic things like having a Sunday dinner, having family time.”
She then expressed her unhappiness at being accused of crimes by people she believes she helped, saying:
“You have helped someone and someone has turned it around in a nasty little way and made it horrible.”
Shelley Davies, who also lived with Ms. MacGregor when she was a teenager, is charged with conspiracy to procure a woman to become a common prostitute and false imprisonment between 1993 and 1995. She will not be giving evidence or calling any evidence to support her not guilty plea, but her lawyer — Louise Sweet — did ask Ms. MacGregor whether Ms. Davies was also encouraged to have sex with men at that time.
Ms. MacGregor replied: “No, there is no way.”
Ms. MacGregor and her fellow defendants Arshid Hussain, Sajid Bostan, Qurban Ali, Majid Bostan, Basharat Hussain and Ms. Davies all deny their part in historic child sexual exploitation crimes relating to a Rotherham grooming gang.
The trial continues.
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