A market trader accused of repeatedly raping two teenage girls was labelled a “gangster” by one of his co-accused, a jury has heard.
Mohammed Zahid, known as Bossman, was said to have given free underwear from his lingerie stall on Rochdale Market to both complainants, along with money, alcohol and food, in return for regular sex with him and other Asian men in the town.
Zahid allegedly abused one of the teenagers, Girl B, from the age of 13, on an unwashed mattress in the “grim, cold, dark” basement of a town centre clothes shop belonging to Mushtaq Ahmed, who is also said to have raped her.
Both men were aged in their mid-40s at the time, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court has heard.
In 2015, Girl A contacted Greater Manchester Police to say she had been the victim of child sexual exploitation and Girl B later followed with similar allegations.
When arrested, Ahmed initially told detectives he did not know Zahid or another market trader, Kasir Bashir, who is also alleged to have raped Girl B, but then later told them he had lied.
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told jurors: “He went on to tell the police that while he was not involved he was aware that Mr Zahid and Mr Bashir took girls to his shop for sex.
“Mr Ahmed said that Bashir and Zahid used to put stuff in his shop and paid him money.
“He maintained the girls only attended the store when he was not present.
“He said that he was scared of Bashir and Zahid, and ultimately, he sold his shop quietly and moved.
“He said he primarily sold that shop because of them.
“He said that he was afraid for his children, which is why he did not tell the police this in the previous interview.
“He said was afraid someone might try to kill him, telling the police that Bashir and Zahid were gangsters.”
Zahid denied all the allegations against him, including raping Girl A from the age of 14, and stated to police he was “well known” in Rochdale because of his market stall and that he had been “mistakenly identified”.
A total of eight men are on trial for various sex offences against the two girls and at the relevant times were “broadly speaking”, say the Crown, either taxi drivers or connected to Rochdale market.
Taxi driver Mohammed Shahzad, accused of multiple rapes of Girl A, told detectives he did not have anything to do with the alleged incidents.
Mr Scamardella said: “He said to the police that (Girl A) would be paid £30,000 for every person she locked up and she was doing this for the financial compensation.
“He suggested that this was a big incentive.
“He said he did not know why she would target him but she was trying to ‘fix people up’.
“At one stage he said to the police ‘I’m not being funny if 60 people were raping her and doing all sorts of stuff to her she wouldn’t be alive today.
“That’s an honest fact.
“This is for quick easy money, it’s like the car crash scam.”
Another taxi driver Nisar Hussain denied raping Girl A and told police that he did not know her personally, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “He said that he knew her name because ‘in the last year, pretty much every Asian I went to school with has been picked up for this same girl’.
“The Crown say that may be the case as she had been abused by so many Asian men she may well have been known to him.”
Mr Scamardella told jurors, that in a separate case, four men engaged in sexual activity with Girl A at least 30 times between 2004 and 2006, and three of those men were Asian.
The eight men on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court deny various alleged sexual offences said to have been committed between 2001 and 2006.
They are: Mohammed Zahid, 64, of Station Road, Crumpsall, Manchester; Naheem Akram, 48, of Manley, Road, Rochdale; Mohammed Shahzad, 43, of Beswicke Royds Street, Rochdale; Nisar Hussain, 43, of Newfield Close, Rochdale; Roheez Khan, 39, of Athole Street, Rochdale; Arfan Khan, 40, of Grouse Street, Rochdale; Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, of Corona Avenue, Oldham; and Kasir Bashir, 50, of Napier Street East, Oldham.
