Accused in Meadowhall rape case met schoolgirl at party in 2002

Yasser Hussain said he met the girl in 2002, when he was 18 and she was five years younger, but denied talking to her.

He remembered the occasion because he returned to the same house shortly afterwards, and lost his virginity to another, older woman, he told Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.

“(The complainant’s) case is that she met you there twice and had sexual relations with you twice,” said prosecutor Jayne Beckett. “None of that happened?”

“No,” said Yasser Hussain.

When he was interviewed by police he spoke about wearing blue contact lenses at the time, but later claimed he didn’t start wearing them until he was married in 2005.

He said his father made him abide by an 7.30pm curfew at that time, after he was convicted of assault and criminal damage.

The court also heard the complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, contacted him 13 years later on Facebook, and he gave her his telephone number.

Yasser Hussain claimed she asked him to say that another man was mistreating and abusing her, and to “back up an allegation she had already made.”

"Are you saying she is making things up about you because you wouldn’t help her?” said Ms Beckett.

“If I had seen it happen I would have said it,” he said.

He claimed he received threats from anonymous male callers shortly after the telephone call.

The court previously heard that the two teenage girls were allegedly groomed, sexually-exploitated and abused by three men after they used to visit the Meadowhall Shopping Centre.

Ms Beckett previously told the jury the schoolgirls would hang around shopping centres, in particular Meadowhall, where they were targeted by adult males for the purpose of sex, and drink and drugs played a significant part.

The two complainants, who are now adults, gave accounts to police in 2016 and it was stated the first girl had met the defendants through an adult friend.

Ms Beckett said: “The complainants have given accounts of what happened all those years ago at the hands of these defendants in several video-recorded interviews with the police.”

Yasser Hussain, 37, of Norborough Road, Tinsley, Sheffield, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and two counts of indecent assault.

Azad Raja, 37, of Adney Street, Sheffield, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault.

A third defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has denied two counts of indecent assault on the second girl.

The jury previously heard Raja allegedly groomed the first girl for about a year before sexually assaulting her twice and raping her in her bedroom and again in his bedroom and again in a lift at Meadowhall.

Yasser Hussain also allegedly twice abused the first girl and raped her.

The court previously heard how the mother of the first girl struggled to stop her daughter seeing men.

The four-week trial, which started on October 1, continues.

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