A jury has heard how a 17-year-old girl was taken to a house in Bristol where she was repeatedly raped by three men and a teenage boy in an attack that prosecutors say lasted several hours.
Meeting at shopping centre
Bristol Crown Court heard the victim had been out Christmas shopping with a friend at Cabot Circus shopping centre when they began talking to 21-year-old Mehrab Safi, whom they had not met before. Safi went on to allegedly groom the victim on Snapchat before arranging for a taxi to take her from her home in Somerset to the Bristol address days later, in the early hours of November 30.
The alleged attack
While at the home, the court heard the girl was given cigarettes and vodka before being allegedly raped by Safi, as well as his co-defendants Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheil, both 19, and a 16-year-old boy. All defendants are originally from Afghanistan.
Prosecuting, Ed Hetherington told the jury: "The prosecution say that they sexually abused a young girl who Mr Safi had met and began grooming only days before the rapes took place. On November 30 last year, Mr Safi and Mr Habibkheil arranged for her to be brought by taxi to meet them in Bristol in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Once she arrived, she was taken to a home in St Werburghs and she was very quickly expected to have sex with Mr Safi. She didn't want to, not yet, but it happened anyway."
Mr Hetherington added: "After Mr Safi had had sex with her, the other three men in the house took it in turns to get her alone in a bedroom or in a bed and to have sex with her against her wishes. While all of this was going on, she was plied with alcohol and cigarettes to secure her compliance. She was alone. She was isolated in an unfamiliar city miles from home, in the dead of night, with a house full of men she didn't know. We say she was raped and she was abused repeatedly over a period of several hours."
Grooming and travel
The jury of five men and seven women heard that the girl, who was shopping with a friend, had given Safi her phone number after meeting him at the shopping centre on November 25. He later asked her to add him on Snapchat, requesting nude photographs of her on November 28. In the early hours of November 30, the girl got into a taxi from her home in Somerset and travelled to Bristol to meet Safi. She was initially dropped off in an industrial area, where Safi was waiting with Habibkheil, before they got into another taxi, which took them to a house in St Werburghs.
Mr Hetherington said CCTV footage showed the girl and Safi holding hands as they walked down the road. "There's no doubt, she thought she was visiting her new boyfriend or potential new boyfriend," he told the jury.
Defendants fled
After arriving at the house, the girl was told to go to his bedroom upstairs. Safi told the girl he wanted to have sex with her, which she was expecting and replied that she would but not yet. Safi allegedly asked her to remove her clothing six to seven times, insisting they would not have sex, but then is said to have raped her when she did so. The girl then dressed and was brought downstairs where the other defendants were playing a video game.
Safi, Ahmadzai and Habibkheil then fled the UK in the back of a lorry three days after the alleged incident. The men were discovered by French authorities in Calais after fleeing the house as police arrived. Mr Hetherington said mobile phone footage recovered from Safi's phone showed the three defendants in the back of the lorry with Habibkheil making hand gestures to the camera and laughing. "We suggest they are celebrating because they think they have got away with it," he said.
Charges and trial
Safi, of St Werburghs, Bristol, denies one count of human trafficking and two charges of rape. Habibkheil, of Lockleaze, Bristol, denies one count of human trafficking and one charge of rape. Ahmadzai, of Redcliffe, Bristol, denies one charge of rape and one of assault by penetration. The 16-year-old boy also denies one charge of rape. Their trial, in front of Judge Michael Cullum, is expected to last up to three weeks.
