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A 14-year-old girl became pregnant after she was "group raped" in a forest by members of a Rotherham based gang, a court heard yesterday.

The vulnerable youngster ended up “traumatised” after her parents then forced her to have an abortion, a jury heard.

The teen – described as “a vulnerable child who suffered very low self esteem” - had been passed from one group of predatory Asian males in the South Yorkshire town to another, Sheffield crown court heard.

Between August 2001 and August 2002, Nabeel Kurshid, 34 and Iqlak Yousaf, 34, allegedly drove the teen to Sherwood Forest, plying her with cannabis.

They threatened to abandon her unless she had sex. The two men and a third unidentified man all raped her, prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said.

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She said: “They took her to Sherwood Forest in a car. She smoked cannabis and was as high as a kite.

“She was warned she would have to do what she was told or she would be left there. Each defendant took turns having sex with her.

“She was bitten and it left marks were left on her neck. She was not freely consenting.

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“The defendants ensured her compliance by giving her drugs and threatening to abandon her in the forest.

“She became pregnant as a result of that group rape.

“Her parents then forced her to have a termination. She suffered a great deal of psychological trauma as a result.”

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The court heard that when she had previously told her mum and dad about earlier abuse she was suffering her parents had been “unsupportive”, verbally abusive and had locked her out of the house.

Ms Colborne said the girl had been “passed from one group of Asian males to another and over time was very seriously abused.”

“They would pick her up to have sex with her and introduced her to other men,” she added.

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The jury heard how Yousaf and Kurshid were among a gang of eight Asians in Rotherham who had groomed girls as young as 13 in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

They had plied teens – including two young sisters – with alcohol and drugs and “passed them around” between each other for sex.

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The girls “who thought they were loved” were subjected to “acts of a degrading and violent nature” it was alleged.

The men – now all in their mid to late 30s – are accused of 28 offences including eleven rapes, 14 indecent assaults, falsely imprisoning a girl and procuring a girl under 16 for sex with another person.

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The eight accused are:

Mohammed Imran Akhtar, 37, accused of one rape, one aid and abet rape, four indecent assaults, procuring a girl under 21 to have sex with another person, sex assault and supplying cannabis to a girl under 16.

Tanweer Ali, 37 accused of two rapes, two indecent assaults and one false imprisonment.

Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, 39 accused of one rape; Nabeel Kurshid, 34, accused of two rapes (one group) and one indecent assault; Iqlak Yousaf, 34, accused of two rapes (one group) and two indecent assaults; Amjal Rafiq, 39, accused of false imprisonment and indecent assault.

Asif Ali, 33, accused of three indecent assaults. A 39 year old man who cannot be named is accused of three rapes and one abduction of girl under 16

All are from Rotherham apart from El-Hakam who is from Sheffield.