Trio deny charges after collapse of Brierfield sex grooming trial

Ased Afzal, Qasim Hussain and Furgan Amjad all denied the charge when they appeared before Burnley Crown Court.

The jury was told the case was a direct result of an investigation launched after a case involving six men collapsed after three days when the teenager refused to continue after she had started to give her evidence.

The men had been arrested as part of Operation Hawk and were all charged with sex offences against the girl.

Furgan Amjad (23), of Halifax Road, Brierfield, is the brother of two of the six, Mohammed Imran Amjad, known as Immy, and Mohammed Zeeshan Amjad, known as Zishan.

He is alleged to have pursued a “charm offensive” on the 16-year-old girl in the weeks and days before the trial and during the case in an attempt to dissuade her from giving evidence against his brothers.

He was said to have given her money and applied subtle and less than subtle pressure. He asked the girl, who had a young baby, to meet him and kept her in his car for an hour and a half. He contacted her 350 times in the three weeks before the trial and texted her when she was in the court building, waiting to give evidence.

Qasim Hussain (20), of Bacup Road, Rossendale, is an associate of the brothers and of the Afzal family.

Ased Afzal (29), of Limefield Avenue, Brierfield, is the brother of Shiraz Afzal, known as Frankie, another of the six who were in court.

Both Hussain and Afzal are alleged to have attempted to pervert justice by sabotage in a sham letter, “a crude, put-up job” purporting to be from the girl in which she withdrew all the allegations of multiple rape and sexual assault the six men were facing. A photo of the letter was found on a phone belonging to an associate of the defendants.

Miss Amanda Johnson (prosecuting) said three weeks before the trial date, Hussain took the girl in a taxi to Bradford. When they were there, he bought writing paper and a pen and dictated a letter for the girl to write, saying her allegations were false.

She was made to write that her former boyfriend forced her to make up the allegations as he had a problem with the brothers and their friends. She was also made to write that she lied to the police, that police made things up and she did not have sex with any of the brothers. She had to write the letter to “get the boys off”. He took the letter from her and kept it.

Ased Afzal, known as Ace, became involved a few days before the trial. Hussain contacted the girl and gave her the letter in Glen Way, Brierfield, telling her to take it to Station Garage, the Afzal family business. In a statement made after his arrest, Afzal said he had given the letter and CCTV footage of the teenager handing it over to Southerns solicitors. He asked a friend to take a picture of the letter in case the original was lost.

(Proceeding)