'Girl B' tells Rochdale trial she has been abused by 'close to a hundred' people 'over the years'

A woman who alleges she was raped and sexually abused by three Rochdale men when she was a child told a trial she has tried to 'pretend it has not happened'.

On her third day on the witness stand, the woman told jurors she had tried to 'block out' the sex attacks she is alleged to have suffered from the age of 13. She said of one of her alleged abusers: "That man is a rapist and a paedophile."

When a barrister representing the defendant suggested she had changed her story, the woman told the jury: "Do you know how many people I have been abused by over the years? It's probably close to a hundred."

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons is referred to as Girl B in press reports. She made the comments as she was being cross-examined by Shahnawaz Khan, who is defending Kasir Bashir.

He is one of eight men standing trial accused sex offences at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

Girl B alleges she was abused by three of the defendants, Mohammed Zahid, Kasir Bashir and Mushtaq Ahmed, who were all said to run shops in Rochdale. The woman had a 'deeply troubled' early life and was in care from the age of seven, jurors have previously been told.

Questioned by Mr Khan as the trial resumed on Thursday (February 13), the woman confirmed she saw Mr Bashir, said to be a market trader in Rochdale, some time after the alleged offences. Asked why she had said in her police interview the encounter had not 'bothered' her, the woman told the jury: "I wouldn't say it didn't bothered me. I was still in that time when it was being blocked out."

Pressed further, the woman admitted she had struggled to express her thoughts and that she had tried to 'pretend it has not happened'. She added "I don't like being vulnerable so