Victim, now an adult, alleged she was forced to perform sex act when she was 12

Told court she was abused in churchyard and above Perfect Pizza takeaway shop

Three of five men now been convicted unanimously at Birmingham Crown Court

Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, convicted of rape and three counts indecent assault

Amjad Hussain, 38, was convicted of a single count of indecent assault Tuesday

Mohammad Rizwan, 37, was also found guilty of two counts of indecent assault

Mohammed Ali Sultan (pictured) was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault

Three men have been convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl who was 'passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several men', a court heard.

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The victim, now an adult, told a jury she was forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, was raped above a shop on a filthy mattress, and was violently abused when she tried to refuse their advances.

Opening the case at the start of the trial, Michelle Heeley QC, prosecuting, said the victim had been 'passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several young men, some of whom are in the dock'.

Five men have been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court, with the jury unanimously agreeing verdicts on Tuesday for three of the men.

Deliberations are continuing on another separate charge faced by one of the convicted men, and in the case of two other separate co-accused.

The offences are all alleged to have taken place in the Telford area of the West Midlands, in Shropshire, sometime between 2000 and 2003, and started when the girl, now an adult, was just 12.

Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, was convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

Jurors heard at trial how he already had previous convictions in both 2012 and 2015 for 'similar offences against young girls'.

Pictured L-R: Mohammed Ali Sultan, Nazam Akhtar, Amjad Hussain, Mohammad Rizwan and Shafiq Younas

Amjad Hussain, 38, was convicted of a single count of indecent assault - but jury deliberations are ongoing for a similar separate charge he is facing.

Co-accused Mohammad Rizwan, 37, was also found guilty of two counts of indecent assault.

In the trial, jurors were told the victim was sold for sex by a man named Tanveer Ahmed, who 'befriended her' during a low point in her life.

Ahmed, who made takeaway deliveries for Perfect Pizza in the town, was not on trial alongside the other defendants, having been deported to Pakistan for 'unrelated offences'.

Jurors also watched a video-recorded interview with the victim, in which she told detectives of enduring two years of 'hell' and repeatedly contemplated taking her own life as she was traded between different men for 'months and months'.

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She said her family knew nothing at the time but added that 'people at school' somehow found out, through rumour.

She said: 'I don't know how people found out, but they did. I wouldn't say I was bullied for it, but I would get called names. It just made me keep it to myself even more.

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'There used to be like actions, with their hand, hand by their mouth, suggesting b******s.

'Even the teachers heard people saying these things and not one teacher pulled me to the side and asked me if things were all right. I was too scared to go and ask for help. But nobody said a word.'

She told police that, years after the abuse ended, she recognised photos of two alleged attackers, Ali Sultan and Ahmed, from press reports on the 'Telford sex ring', during the Operation Chalice investigation.

Asked why she did not tell anyone about exactly happened until years later, she replied: 'I think I had just had enough, I kept it to myself for all these years.

The woman told Birmingham Crown Court how she was abused and raped by countless men when she was a child

'Why should somebody be able to do those things and get away with it? Still to this day it goes through my head, all the time.'

She also told how, at the time, her mother 'went berserk' at her after a neighbour had told her 'Pakistani [men] were coming to the house when she wasn't there'.

Barrister Anthony Barraclough, representing Ali Sultan, asked the woman - giving evidence in court from behind a screen - if she had 'lied' about one of the alleged rapes, after telling the jury there was evidence that his client was in Pakistan at the time.

She replied: 'I know what he did.'

Mr Barraclough then asked why she told a 'lie to police', by changing an account she gave at the time.

She said: 'I told them that I had been raped, then I told them I hadn't because I was too scared to tell them.'

Earlier, she claimed to have been threatened by Ali Sultan as a child never to speak of her alleged abuse.

It was only years later that she finally spoke about what happened, when police knocked her door. 'I was being raped and abused and assaulted,' she said.

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Deliberations are continuing in the case of Shafiq Younas, 35, who denies indecent assault, and Nazam Akhtar who denies rape.