Police missed the chance to spare a young girl an appalling sexual abuse ordeal by accusing her of lying when she turned to them for help, a court heard yesterday.

The 12-year-old was living in a social services run children's home when she told a member of staff about alleged abuse by older Asian men and police were alerted.

But instead of helping her out she said the police officer drove her to a country lane where he accused her of making up the allegations.

The 12-year-old was living in a social services run children's home in the Rotherham area when she told a member of staff about abuse. Now a woman aged 31 she has given evidence in the trial of (pictured left to right) Qurban Ali, Arshid Hussein, Karen Macgregor, Shelley Davies, Majid Bostan and Sajid Bostan

Describing the incident in court yesterday, the victim said of the officer – known as 'Kimble the Thimble' – 'ripped up loads of paperwork and said I were lying.'

The girl claims she went on to suffer five years of horrific abuse, being forced to have sex with Asian men and was held as a sex slave in a flat above a restaurant in Blackpool for about six or seven months.

Now a 31-year-old mother-of-five, she said she came forward to give a statement after the publication last year of the report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham by Professor Alexis Jay because she wanted 'the truth' to come out.

She said her first statement to police was last September because the officer made no recording or statement of her complaint about 20 years earlier.

One woman who lived with defendant Karen MacGregor (pictured) in Rotherham when she was about 14 or 15 claimed she was pressurised into sex in return for her lodgings

The trial of five men and two women at Sheffield Crown Court earlier heard how vulnerable teenage girls were 'pimped' out to Asian men and treated 'like Hansel and Gretel.'

One woman who lived with defendant Karen MacGregor in Rotherham when she was about 14 or 15 claimed she was pressurised into sex in return for her lodgings.

She said being at the property was comparable with the Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel, in which children are kidnapped by a witch living in a house made of cake and sweets.

Yesterday the mother-of-five spoke about her ordeal which began at 12 and ended when customers at the restaurant where she was being held intervened to save her.

She said Basharat Hussain – one of three brothers involved in the abuse allegations – would pick her up from the children's home on the promise to staff she would be returned by 11pm.

The schoolgirl claimed she was taken to a restaurant for the first time in her life and then made to perform a sex act on 'Bash' and two other Asian men.

She said: 'If you could have seen me at 12. I was such a little thing like a little boy. There were nowt on me.

'It's hard someone shows you a bit of attention, makes you feel special, you've not had all that in your life. I looked like a little boy, really, really young looking.'

She said she and another girl were dubbed 'car slags' by the Asians as they were always being driven about in Basharat's car. She later had sex with 'Bash' on repeated occasions.

When she was 16, after living in a hostel, she was driven to Blackpool by friends of Bash, the court heard.

Five men and two women are on trial accused of roles in the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham over a period of more than 10 years. One of the accused if Majid Bostan (pictured arriving at court)

She told the court she was kept locked in her bedroom in squalid conditions for weeks, forced to work in the restaurant until 1am and told she would 'have to pay her way.'

The girl said she was forced to have sex with an Asian man of about 40, who told her he wanted to take her to Pakistan to be his wife.

'He treated me like his little wife,' she said.

Describing her situation, she said: 'I had not got a penny to my name, I was just stuck.' Adding: 'I can't explain it, you just do what you have to do.'

She said sometimes had to go 'upstairs' three or four times a week with a man.

The teenager was given just one meal a day and survived by eating bits of cheese and crackers.

Eventually she escaped after plucking up the courage to speak to a couple who came to the restaurant regularly. They ran the café across the road and when they heard what the girl had gone through they told her: 'You stay here.'

The charges involve 12 alleged victims. Pictured: Sajid Bostan (left), 38, and Qurban Ali (right), 53 - both of whom face a string of charges - arriving at court

'I got my things and the next thing I was out,' she said. 'Just like that it were over.'

She was in a terrible physical state, the court heard.

Under cross-examination the woman said she came forward and spoke to police last year after seeing local police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright on national television and 'wanted people to know he was lying.'

The alleged victim admitted she was suing Rotherham council for civil damages and denied being motivated by money.

'I thought for the first time ever they might actually do something about it rather than ignoring it like they did last time and sweeping it under the carpet.

'I just want justice to be done. I want the truth to be out.'

Seven defendants are accused of a total of 51 offences involving 12 girls from the Rotherham area over a 16-year period from 1987 to 2003.

The charges include rape, conspiracy to rape, false imprisonment, indecent assault and procuring under-age girls for sex.

Arshid Hussain, 40, and his brother Basharat, 39, both from Goole, deny all the charges along with Qurban Ali, 53, Majid Bostan, 37, his brother Sajid Bostan, 38, MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40, all from Rotherham.

FEMALE DEFENDANTS ALLEGEDLY PAID IN RETURN FOR SETTING UP SEX ENCOUNTERS - BEFORE SPENDING THE MONEY ON TAKEAWAYS

By Keiligh Baker

Today the court also heard defendants Karen MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40, allegedly told another victim that she was expected to carry out the sex acts in return for the pair looking after her.

The alleged victim described how the women would be paid in return for setting up the sex encounters.

The woman, who was 11 or 12 years old at the time, said: 'I personally think that they did it for money as they had nothing at one minute and the next could go and order themselves takeaways.'

The girl sought refuge at MacGregor's house after allegedly being subjected to sexual abuse by another defendant standing trial, Arshid Hussain, 40.

Today the court (pictured) also heard defendants Karen MacGregor, 58, and Shelley Davies, 40, allegedly told another victim that she was expected to carry out the sex acts in return for the pair looking after her

Giving evidence through a DVD recording, the woman said: 'I was out in Rotherham and these two girls came up to me and they said I looked upset and one of them said 'why don't you come to my house'. So I did and came and went from there for a bit.

'There came the stage where they brought some older men to the house and they said I had to have sex with them.

'I said I didn't want to but they said I had to because they were feeding me and making me safe.

'Karen said I had to because she was looking after me and it was my way of paying my way.'

The woman said the alleged forced sex slavery also meant Arshid Hussain, who she knew as Mad Ash, was able to find her as he was the nephew of one of MacGregor's associates, Qurban Ali, 53.

The alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: 'Doing what that lot wanted brought Ash back to see me. At first Ash would lead me upstairs into the bedroom and make out everything was okay between us then he would call downstairs and a man would come upstairs and I would have to have sex with them.'

She said there were about five or six men who would regularly come to MacGregor's house and four of those men she would be told to have sex with.

She alleges MacGregor and Davies took money from the men in exchange to letting them have sex with the girls.

The woman said: 'I personally think that they did it for money as they had nothing at one minute and the next could go and order themselves takeaways.

'I tried to leave but there was always Karen or Shelley there.'

The woman, who is now in her mid 30s, said she met Arshid Hussain when she was 11 years old in Rotherham.

There came the stage where they brought some older men to the house and they said I had to have sex with them. I said I didn't want to but they said I had to because they were feeding me and making me safe

A few weeks after they met he allegedly coerced her into performing oral sex on him, before forcing her into full penetration three weeks later.

This marked the beginning of a long period of abuse that Hussain is accused of carrying out against the woman, allegedly forcing her to have sex with other men then kicking, punching, slapping or stubbing cigarettes out on her if she refused.

When she was 15 the woman claims she was picked up at a taxi rank in Rotherham and then driven to nearby Sheffield by Hussain along with Sajid Bostan.

She said: 'They took me to Sheffield and they bought me chicken and chips.

'The next thing I knew Mad Ash was bundling me in the boot of the car. I must have been driven in there for an hour and a half before they stopped and told me I could sit in the car with them.

'Mad Ash told me were were going to a house in London. When we got there, there were loads of Asian men there.

'Ash went upstairs after about 20 minutes and then called me up and told me that he owed these people money and couldn't pay them.

'He asked me to help him out by having sex with them. I said no but he said they wouldn't drive me home if I didn't have sex with them.

'It was supposed to be two people but then I had to have sex with another one too.

'At about three or four in the morning they drove me back to Rotherham. On the way back Ash said to me "you know I love you", they dropped me back off at the taxi rank.

'I phoned my mum and told her I had been to London and what had happened to me but when I went to my mum's she took me back to the kids' home.'

Karen MacGregor, 58, faces four charges, including conspiracy to rape and Shelley Davies, 40, Rotherham, faces three charges, including conspiracy to rape. Both deny all the charges against them.