Witness tells child sexual exploitation trial she woke up in Karen MacGregor’s house to find her bedroom ‘full of Asian men, five or six of them’

A woman who took in vulnerable girls from a children’s home in Rotherham wanted to “pimp” the teenagers out, the jury in a child sex exploitation case has heard, as one witness described the setup as being like “Hansel and Gretel”.

The witness who made reference to the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale said defendant Karen MacGregor’s house was lovely at first because MacGregor fed and clothed her and was a motherly figure, but it quickly became a frightening experience.

“Things suddenly changed. She was lovely to begin with but then she … started telling us we need to earn our keep. I took that to mean I would have to sleep with Asians. Karen wanted to pimp everyone out. It was like Hansel and Gretel’s living at Karen’s,” she told the police in an interview referred to during cross examination at Sheffield crown court, where five men and two women are on trial over child exploitation charges.

The witness, who claims to have been sexually assaulted, cannot be named for legal reasons. In the witness box on day three of the trial, she alleged that one night she woke up in MacGregor’s house and her bedroom was “full of Asian men, five or six of them”.

Asked by the prosecutor what caused her to wake up, she replied: “I believe the presence of somebody there.” She added: “I remember one of them being sat over me, instigating to have sex and I was just thinking, no.”

She alleged one of the men complained to MacGregor that “I were being mardy”. She said she then heard the defendant say: “I will sort it.” Under cross-examination the witness agreed that nothing happened, after that exchange with MacGregor.

She told jurors of two other incidents in which she was sent on “dates” with men which she didn’t want to go on. On one such occasion she went to the cinema, but on the way home she was sexually assaulted in a car.

Before living at MacGregor’s home, the witness had been in a children’s home. The jury heard that social services were aware that the witness moved into MacGregor’s house and that police had called by the house in relation to another girl. The witness said she was not aware that social services were making payments to MacGregor for food and lodging.

The court heard that the witness had asked to be taken home to her mother after she had suffered the alleged assault on the way home from the cinema. MacGregor and her “Asian boyfriend” drove the witness home and when the witness got out from the back seat, she lunged at MacGregor through the window and attacked her.

She later told a police officer that “living at Karen’s house, pressure was put on you to prostitute yourself with taxi drivers, friends of Karen’s”.

During questioning by both prosecution and defence counsel, the witness was unable to remember much of what happened at the house. She thought this was because she wanted to blank it out of her mind.

Robert Jones, counsel for MacGregor, put it to to the witness that her memory was hazy. She agreed. He said that MacGregor disasgreed with her allegations about pimping and about Asian men in her bedroom.

“I might not have a good memory, but you can’t forget feelings,” the witness replied.

All seven defendants deny all 51 charges.

The trial continues.