Three teenage girls were given drugs and used as "sexual commodities" by a gang of men, a court heard. Caernarfon Crown Court heard on Monday that the girls alleged sexual exploitation at the hands of four men from Rhyl.
Prosecutor Owen Edwards KC told the jury that two girls aged 14 and 15 were walking through Rhyl late one night in 2022, having smoked cannabis. They became "obvious targets for predatory older men." Mustafa Iqbal, 43, a takeaway driver and drug dealer, allegedly spotted them and decided they were "ripe for sexual exploitation." The girls were plied with drink and cannabis at his home.
The court heard that Jaswinder Singh, 65, arranged to take one girl to London, telling her to pretend to his sister that she was his 22-year-old carer, to avoid his sister concluding he was part of an "Asian grooming gang." Police were contacted due to concerns of a friend, but no prosecution followed at that stage.
Mr Edwards said Iqbal "routinely got his way by exploiting girls," treating a 16-year-old crack cocaine addict as a "sex slave." He remarked that the defendants "seemed proud of their exploits."
The four men—Iqbal, Ziaullah Badsha, 25, Mohamed Arshad, 36, and Singh—deny conspiring together to arrange the travel of girls aged 14 and 15 with a view to sexual exploitation. They face over 20 counts, including causing girls to provide sexual services in exchange for cannabis. Iqbal, Arshad, and Badsha also deny rape allegations. Sarah Gray, 53, faces charges of conspiracy to supply drugs, allowing her house to be used for sexual exploitation, and perverting justice by washing bedding after a rape.
