A gang of Muslim men in Britain has been accused of abusing a 13-year-old girl they found wandering the streets on her own.

The men, who are on trial at Sheffield Crown Court, are accused of abusing vulnerable child in a variety of flats and hotel rooms after she ran away from home, in a seven-day ordeal.

The Express reports that the court heard that the girl “fell into conversation” with one man called Shaz after taking a bus from Sheffield to Bradford. He invited her back to his flat where he kept her for two nights and abused her.

Shaz, who is still being hunted by police, then dropped her in Bradford city centre, where more men began following her. Mohammed Shapal and Shakeal Rehman then drove up and took her back to a hotel room, prosecutor Thomas Storey said.

Mr Storey said that Rehman held the girl by the neck and raped her, and then handed her to Shapal, who spent the night with the girl. Shapal is alleged to have told the girl that she was “gorgeous”, “nice” and “beautiful”. He then left in the morning to attend prayers at a mosque.

The prosecution claims that the girl was then picked up by Usman Ali in a car and the two had sex. She was later picked up by Bekir Rasheed, who took her to a party at Yasin Amini’s home, where Amini had sex with her.

The men deny all charges against them.

The trial comes after a report revealed widespread child abuse in the nearby city of Rotherham. The scale of the abuse has deeply shocked Britain, leading to serious questions over the political correctness, which is it is claimed led to people not reporting the abuse for fear of being labelled racist.

South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright has refused to resign in the wake of the report, despite being in charge of children’s and young people’s services in the town between 2005 and 2012, a period during which much of the abuse took place.

A petition calling for his resignation has now reached almost reached 15,000 signatures.