Gang of men 'groomed vulnerable Oxford girls as young as 11 for sex before beating them with meat cleavers and baseball bats'

I fear that this case, which began yesterday at the Central Criminal Court Old Bailey, is going to be the worst so far prosecuted.  From the Daily Mail  

A gang of nine men groomed and horrifically abused vulnerable girls from the age of 11 making their lives a 'living hell', a court heard today.

The men, all from Oxford, allegedly plied six girls with alcohol, cocaine and heroin before repeatedly raping them. They are accused of subjecting them to 'extreme physical and sexual violence', often beating and burning them as they raped their victims.

Kamar Jamil, 27, Akthtar Dogar, 32, Anjum Dogar, 30, Assad Hussain, 32, Mohammed Karrar, 38, Bassam Karrar, 26, Mohammed Hussain, 24, Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, and Bilal Ahmed, 26, deny the charges against them.

Karrar and other men not before the court is accused of using an instrument on one of the victims when she was 11 or 12 to force a miscarriage after she became pregnant.

The trial heard how there were many more potential abusers in addition to those in the dock. It took almost half an hour for all the charges to be read to the jury. Telephone evidence between the accused and the victims will be presented along with DNA evidence.

Prosecutor Noel Lucas QC said: 'The evidence will show that these girls were targeted precisely because they were young. Much of what the girls were forced to endure was perverted in the extreme. The depravity of what the girls were forced to endure was extreme.'

The men took the girls to towns and cities across the country where they suffered further sexual abuse by other men. The abuse is alleged to have taken place over a period of eight years. Mr Lucas told the jury of seven men and five women at the Old Bailey to 'steel yourself' for the evidence they were to hear.

The court was told the men had 'actively targeted vulnerable young girls from the age of about 11 or 12.' Mr Lucas pointed out to the jury that the girls who were targeted by the men were children.

He said the men would came across the girls with 'troubled upbringings' and 'unsettled homes' when they were out drinking or playing truant. The girls were in care homes. What care????  'There is evidence that the men deliberately targeted children that were out of control.'

The men would 'exploit their vulnerability' knowing it was less likely that anyone would be 'exercising any normal parental control over them or looking out for them.' They groomed the girls by giving gifts 'or simply showing the care and attention that they craved.'

The jury was told the girls were taken to hotels, guest houses or people's homes for other men to have sex with them. The men would guard the girls so they could not escape and would then be paid for providing the girls.

Men would travel to Oxford 'often by appointment' from as far afield as Bradford, Leeds, London and Slough 'specifically to abuse young girls'. Sometimes the girls were taken to towns and cities such as London and Bournemouth.

Mr Lucas said the men would inflict 'extreme physical and sexual violence on the girls' using knives, meat cleavers and baseball bats. They were 'humiliated and degraded' bitten, scratched suffocated, tied up beaten and burnt. Sometimes the abuse would go on for 'days on end'.

It is claimed the men also threatened the girls and their families if they should try to 'free themselves from the grasp of the group'.

The trial continues.