A VICTIM of the Rotherham paedophile ring has told how she was lured to what she thought was a safe haven - only to be forced to have sex with five men at a time to "earn her keep".

Joanne Underwood, 36, was just 11 when she was groomed for sex by the depraved Hussain brothers, who pimped her out all over the country.

7 Joanne Underwood was just 11 years old when she was lured into the vile paedophile ring run by Arshid Hussain Credit: MEDAVIA

Having lost her childhood to the sick gang, Joanne was offered refuge by a woman called Karen MacGregor, a local charity worker, when she was 14.

But Joanne’s relief was short-lived as "Aunt Kaz" demanded she "pay her way" by forcing her to have sex with a string of Asian men.

At 21 she escaped MacGregor’s clutches and, 15 years later, Joanne was a key witness in the trial that saw her captor and the men involved in the paedophile ring brought down.

MacGregor, 59, was jailed for 13 years for child abuse offences last February, while the Hussain brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras received sentences of 35 years, 25 years and 19 years respectively.

Joanne told how at 11 years old she fell in love with Arshid Hussain, then 15 and known as Big Ash, as he showered her with sweets and cigarettes.

She explained: “I was just a child but Ash gave me my first swig of booze.

“I was ignored at home. Mum didn’t seem bothered about what I got up to.

“It felt like Ash and his mates were the only people who wanted to know me. I thought they genuinely cared about me.”

But the one day, things took a sinister turn as Ash led her to an old churchyard.

7 Karen MacGregor, the depraved charity worker who Joanne thought had saved her Credit: PA:Press Association

Joanne recalled: “I didn’t understand where he was taking me but once we were out of sight, he roughly grabbed me and pushed my head down.

“Unzipping his jeans, he forced me to give him oral sex. I cried that I didn’t want to and tried to wriggle free, but Ash had grabbed a fistful of my hair and was holding my head tight.

“I pleaded with him to stop, but eventually I went through with it. I thought if I gave him what he wanted, he’d let me go.

“But I was wrong. After that, it was as if I’d given Ash permission to do whatever he wanted, whenever he liked.”

Joanne told how Ash passed her around his friends and brothers Basharat and Bannaras like a rag doll, telling her she “owed” them for all the booze, cigarettes and food they’d bought her.

She explained: “By now, I was spending all my time with Ash and his gang. They barely let me out of their sight and if I didn’t do what they wanted, they beat me.

“Mum had washed her hands of me. One day she took me to social services offices and told them she couldn’t cope with me anymore.

7 Evil Arshid Hussain (in baseball cap) on his way to Sheffield Crown Court Credit: PA:Press Association

“My eyes filled with tears as I watched Mum walk out of the office. She didn’t even look back. I was alone.

“Social services did their best but I was moved into a care home where Ash and his mates had even easier access to me.”

Joanne recalled how one night Ash scaled the wall of the home and climbed in through her bedroom window.

She said: “Ash brutally raped me in the care home, then pimped me out to the rest of his Asian mates. He even paid off his debts by offering me up for sex.

“If I ever refused, I was beaten and burned with cigarettes. I would often return to the care home, bloodied and bruised - not that anyone noticed.

“None of the staff asked me about what was happening and social services officers dismissed me as a promiscuous attention seeker.”

It was at that point Joanne met Shelley Davies.

She explained: “She was friendly and was a good listener. She told me I could stay at her friend Karen’s house, as she would look after me.”

When Joanne first arrived at MacGregor’s posh two-bedroom house, she got a glimpse of a normal life.

7 Joanne recalled how one night Ash scaled the wall of the care home and climbed in through her bedroom window Credit: MEDAVIA

She said: “Karen told me I was safe now as she showed me around. She was caring and sympathetic, and she treated me like one of her own.”

But it was too good to be true.

A few weeks later, Joanne told how MacGregor locked the doors and windows and informed her she needed to “earn her keep”.

Joanne recalled: “She said she had some male friends coming round later, and that I was to make them happy as I couldn’t expect to live there for free.

“When Karen returned home from her job in the taxi office with an Asian man, my heart sank. Make them happy – I knew exactly what she meant.

“I was woken in the middle of the night from the sofa bed in the living room, and made to have sex with the man, Qurban Ali, while Karen watched on.

“Qurban was Karen’s boyfriend but that didn’t stop them. The next night she simply brought more men back with her.

“What I’d thought was a safe haven was actually a Hansel and Gretel house.

“I was trapped. On the worst nights, I was forced to endure sex with five different men, each pawing at me one after the other.

“I never saw money change hands but Karen was always getting new furniture for the house or new bedding. I knew she was buying it with my rent money.”

Desperate, one day Joanne tried to escape through the kitchen window, but MacGregor and Davies "grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her" back inside.

7 Joanne thought she had finally escaped the ring's clutches when Karen MacGregor took her in Credit: MEDAVIA

She recalled: “They beat me until I lay sobbing in a pool of my own blood. Other escape bids ended the same way and Karen even sent police away when they turned up at the house looking for me.

“After eight months in her house of hell, I eventually seized my chance and fled. Social services moved me to a different care home, eight miles from Rotherham.”

But one day Joanne was told by one of the care workers that a message had been left for her from her 'Auntie Kaz'.

She said: “I felt a sickening knot of dread tighten in my stomach as I realised it was Karen. She’d found me.

“She’d moved to Sheffield and left me her new number. I ignored it and never rang her - but then one day, she turned up at the home.

7 It wasn’t until Joanne was 21 that she finally escaped MacGregor’s evil clutches Credit: MEDAVIA

“The staff smiled as they ushered her into my bedroom. Frantic, I desperately tried to alert their attention.

“Once my bedroom door was locked behind us, Ash and one of his mates shinned up the drainpipe outside.

“I froze with fear but thankfully, staff spotted them and all three were ordered to leave. But my relief was short-lived.

“Later, when I walked outside, Karen and the two men pounced. They’d been waiting around the corner, and they bundled me into a car.

“We drove to Karen’s new house and it wasn’t long before there was a procession of Asian men hungry for sex and I was plunged back into my living hell.”

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It wasn’t until Joanne was 21 that she finally escaped MacGregor’s evil clutches.

She admitted: “I was a young woman but I had no idea what a real relationship was. That was until I met Carl.”

Carl, 36, showed Joanne what real love was, and in 2010 the couple had their first child, Ethan, together.

Joanne was determined to give her son the stable childhood she’d been robbed of.

But their peace was shattered when police came knocking at her door.

Joanne recalled: “They told me they were building a case against Ash, the paedophile ring and Karen and Shelley. They needed my help.

“I hadn’t even told Carl what happened to me, I’d locked my past firmly away but now I was forced to explain. Now, was my chance for justice.

7 Joanne is now a mum to son Ethan Credit: MEDAVIA

“As the only victim of all the defendants I was the central witness in the case and for three days straight the defence barristers grilled me.”

Arshid Hussain, Qurban Ali, Basharat Hussain, Bannaras Hussain, Karen MacGregor and Shelley Davies were sentenced to a total of 102 years in prison between them.

Judge Sarah Wright told the group their crimes had a devastating impact on their victims, adding: “Their childhood and adolescence can never be reclaimed.

“Each has suffered immense psychological harm. They continue, and will continue to suffer throughout their lives, as a result of your actions.”

In 2013 MacGregor had set up KinKids, a community support group for kinship carers, and spoke out in support of vulnerable abused children.

Following the trial MacGregor was sentenced to 13 years – and Joanne feels she got what she deserved.

She said: “Karen tricked me into believing I was safe, only to abuse me in the worst way imaginable. To me, that’s the ultimate betrayal.”