She told police she did what men wanted because they made her life 'a bit more exciting'

A schoolgirl and her friend were allegedly abused by 11 men from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire after she met father-of-two Vikram Singh, 45, (pictured) in the town's branch of Woolworths

A schoolgirl victim of an Asian abuse gang was used for sex by 60 men after she was approached by a middle-aged father in a branch of Woolworths when she was just 12, a court heard today.

The girl and her friend were allegedly abused by 11 men from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire after being groomed into believing the men were their boyfriends, and what they were being subjected to was normal.

The men are standing trial accused of 'horrific sexual assault on a massive scale' and between them deny a total of 49 charges including rape, conspiring to facilitate child prostitution and drugging one of the girls in order to have sex with her.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were told that both girls came from broken homes and wanted to feel grown up when they were taken in by the men, with one saying they made her life 'a bit more exciting'.

They were bought alcohol, drugs and gifts by the men to gain their trust before being shared around the group, often being raped by three or four men at a time, Oliver Saxby QC, told the court.

'This case concerns child sexual exploitation on a massive scale,' said Mr Saxby. 'It features two young girls who were employed and sexually abused from the age of 12 or 13.'

He continued: ' Both girls were from unstable backgrounds, making perfect targets. Their lives were 'off the rails'. They were looking for excitement, for attention. For somewhere to hang out, away from school and home.

'They were wanting to feel grown up. And looked after. And they were easy prey for a group of men wanting casual sexual gratification that was easy, regular and readily available. '

The court was told that one girl, who can only be named as Girl A for legal reasons, was passed between 60 men for sex, after she met married father-of-two Vikram Singh, 45, while out shopping with her friends in the Aylesbury branch of Woolworths in 2006.

He then groomed her, had sex with her and gave her telephone number to other men who then also had sex with her.

She was aged between 12 and 14 when the abuse is said to have taken place, and the court was told that her alleged ordeal only came to light after she had given birth to two children.

Mr Saxby said Singh, who was born in India, had 'stared and smiled' at her when he first saw her, asking for her age and her number and introducing himself as Bicky.

He later met her in his car and took her to the cinema, where they kissed, and the court was told that he had made Girl A feel as though 'he did not care how much money he spent on me'.

'Over the next couple of weeks Singh "kept her sweet" with simple things tailored to the 12 or 13 year old girl he was grooming,' said Mr Saxby.

'And during this time they would go out for drives and he would kiss her and ask her to give him oral sex. "It was doing stuff like that until he was ready to have sex with me", she told the police.

'"I thought it was wrong but he was lonely and I felt sorry for him and maybe I did it for attention".'

Mr Saxby told the court that Singh had sex with the girl at her house, while her mother was at work, and that he had told her he was 'on Viagra "because of his age"'.

He said they would meet two or three times a week, and have sex in his car or at a house which he said belonged to a friend, but which the prosecutor says was Singh's own house, where his two children slept upstairs.

Harmohan Nangpal , 41, (left) from Hayes, is accused of one count of rape, and one count of sexual activity with a child, while Sajad Ali, 34, of Chesham (right), is charged with rape, sexual activity with a child and giving one of the girls drugs

She then began receiving calls from other men who would ask her for sex, and whether she was a virgin, the court heard.

Mr Saxby said: ' When she told one such caller her true age - presumably it would have been 13 or 14 - he replied "I like that age". Singh always denied knowing anything about these callers but had a smirk on his face when he did so. '

The prosecutor said the girl kept going back to Singh, but later told police: 'It felt like a disgusting job I had to do for him'.

He said the last time Girl A and Singh had sex was in 2008, by which time she had met Mohammed Imran, .

The court was told that on that last occasion Singh had raped her in the back of his car when he was driving her to meet Imran, who the Crown say was sharing her out to other men for sex.

Sing was arrested in September 2014 after the girl identified him to police that March. He denied knowing Girl A and gave a no comment interview.

He denies four counts of rape, four counts of sexual activity with a child, and one of administering a substance with intent.

Because you're in their place and they're making your life a bit more exciting, so you do what they want. I just knew Asian men wanted to sleep with me Girl A

The court was also told that another of the 11 accused, Asif Hussain, 33, had tried to sell Girl A to an 'old Pakistani man who looked just like Osama Bin Laden'.

She had first seen him at a market stall, and would regularly have sex with him at his shared home, which she visited dressed in her school uniform.

The court was told that on the last time she saw Hussain, known to her as 'Lucky', he tried to sell her to a man, aged between 60 and 70, who lived in the basement of his block.

'According to [the victim], he looked just like Osama Bin Laden,' Mr Saxby said.

'She noticed that there was porn on the television and she assumed he had been waiting for her.

'His flat was like a cellar. Hussain told her that the man wanted to sleep with her and encouraged her to do so, saying that the man had money.

'She got freaked out and ran off.'

The court heard the girl, who is now 21, had children by the men she was abused by in 2010 and 2011, but it is not clear who their fathers were. It was then that social services and then the police first became aware of the alleged abuse.

The prosecutor said Girl A was on the child protection register for neglect.

Her mother was depressed and worked late and she played truant from school, spending her days wandering around Aylesbury.

Jurors were told that both she and a close friend, known as Girl B, were befriended by the gang members and showered with inexpensive gifts such as alcohol, DVDs, food, and occasionally drugs.

The court was told that most of the men knew one another and all lived in Aylesbury (pictured), where the alleged abuse occurred

Mr Saxby said: 'The men are accused of sexual assault on a massive scale. It features two young girls who were exploited and sexually assaulted from the age of 12 or 16.

'The sexual abuse included vaginal, oral, anal rape. Both girls were from unstable backgrounds which made them perfect targets. Their lives were off the rails. They were looking for excitement, for attention, for somewhere to hang out away from school and home.

'They were wanting to feel grown up, and looked after. And they were easy prey for a group of men wanting casual sexual gratification that was easy, regular and readily available.

'They were befriended. Encouraged back to addresses, given attention, made to feel wanted, bought things.

'They were being conditioned, exploited, their trust was being established and they were sexually abused.'

He added the girls did not feel as though they were raped, and were brainwashed into thinking they were in relationships with the men.

He said: 'To them at the time their notion of what was right and wrong having been completely distorted this was normal, natural.

'They were in relationships. Notwithstanding they were children they spoke in terms of these men as their boyfriends. And they were being passed from man to man.

'The scale of it is, you may agree, horrifying. A estimated that she had sex with about 60 men - 6-0, almost all Asian.'

The court was told that the 11 men on trial were among a larger group of men who abused the girls, and that each allegedly acted with 'total disregard of the law and the legal prohibition on the sexual abuse of children'.

Mr Saxby told the court that most of the men knew one another and all lived in Aylesbury, where the abuse occurred. Some were married with children with several men working in a market and a few working as taxi drivers.

The prosecutor said the first girl tried to explain why she had had sex with so many men, and read out the statement she gave to police.

The men, who are on trial at the OId Bailey in London (pictured), deny a total of 49 charges

She had said: 'You get passed round. It wasn't particularly me looking for them. It was them looking for me. It's just that they pass your number around. Or you're with one of them and they invited three or four of their friends round and then you have to sleep with them.

'Because you're in their place and they're making your life a bit more exciting, so you do what they want. I just knew Asian men wanted to sleep with me.

'I didn't think they found me attractive. I was happy that I was wanted. I felt popular. Like they wanted me and I got a load of attention, that was it.'

The court heard Girl B, who is now also 21, also came from a broken home and spent time in care.

She told the police: 'From aged 13 to 15 I was reckless. I was very vulnerable. I was easily led. I was out seeing men, getting drunk, running away, getting arrested. I wanted attention and I was looking in the wrong place.'

You get passed round. It wasn't particularly me looking for them. It was them looking for me. It's just that they pass your number around. Or you're with one of them and they invited three or four of their friends round and then you have to sleep with them Girl A

Singh, Harmohan Nangpal, 41, Arshad Iqbal Jani, 33, Hussain, Mohammed Imran, 38, Akbari Khan, 36, Faisal Iqbal, 32, Taimoor Khan, 29, Jerome Joe, 35, Sajid Ali, 35, and Sohail Qamar are all accused of rape.

Sohail Qamar, 41, also faces one count of actual bodily harm against one of the girls.

Each of the 11 men is said to have sexually abused the first victim, whilst Taimmor Khan and Akbari Khan sexually abused her friend.

The attacks are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2012.

Outlining the charges, Mr Saxby said the eleven men variously face four offences - rape, sexual activity with a child, administering a substance for sexual activity and arranging or facilitating child prostitution.

He said, in police interviews, the girls talk of having 'agreed' to have sex with these men.

'There is no talk of fighting them off or screaming for help or anything like that,' he said.

But the prosecutor continued: 'Attention. Company. Compliments. Gifts. Somewhere to hang out, people to be with.

'Drink. Drugs. Excitement. The establishing of trust, of belonging, of being part of a group.

'A sense of dependency. The perception of being liked and wanted and being grown up.

'The sense that sex is just a "natural progression" - that to deny it would be unfair, and a let down.

'In a word, 'grooming'.'

Mr Saxby asked jurors: 'Why were these adult men, some married, some with children of their own, interested in spending time with young girls - other than with cheap, easy sexual gratification in mind?

'And why did they befriend them, invite them to their homes, pay them attention, buy them gifts, gain their trust, give them drink and so on - other than to break the girls' 'freedom and capacity to choose' so they got what they wanted on the pretext of consent?'

The trial continues.