Iranian and Iraqi 'groomed and sexually abused seven young girls' in Doncaster, court hears

Seven Barnsley girls as young as 12 were offered e-cigarettes, money, alcohol and drugs as incentives for sexual abuse by two men in Doncaster, a court has heard.

Iraqi Bawan Harwe, 28, and Iranian Sharam Muhamadi, 20, are on trial for 21 alleged sexual offences, including rape, arranging travel with a view to exploitation, grooming and false imprisonment.

Muhamadi is facing five charges, including facilitation and two counts of rape, all of which he denies.

The jury heard that Harwe had already pleaded guilty to one count of rape of a girl under 13.

Prosecutor Claire Holmes told 12 jurors at Sheffield Crown Court that Harwe contacted some of these young girls using the Snapchat app.

“Contact having been made he, Harwe, typically offered the girls incentives to meet such as e-cig, money, alcohol and or drugs,” she said.

Ms Holmes added: “When they met, Harwe engaged in sexual intercourse with one or more of them.

“Harwe then introduced, perhaps made available is a more appropriate expression, some of the girls to his friend and the second defendant Muhamadi, who then had sex with two more.”

The prosecutor told the court that there was a “method of operation” and repeated behaviour with all of the seven girls.

The girls, who were aged 12 to 15 at the time of the alleged abuse, were “effectively bribed by these older defendants to submit to various sexual indignities. And if those means did not achieve their goals then the girls were intimidated in various ways.”

Harwe and Muhamadi were alleged to have abused the girls using force, submission and a lack of consent due to alcohol and drugs.

Jurors heard that the first alleged victim met the defendants after a friend of Child A was messaged by Harwe on Snapchat.

Harwe was said to have taken Child A and her friend to McDonald’s, “and when he paid he pulled out what was described as a wad of money, Child A thought it was over a thousand pounds.”

Ms Holmes told jurors: “According to Child A, nothing untoward happened to her at that first meeting – that was not to be the case at subsequent meetings. Showing a large amount of cash, giving an e-cigarette, even the McDonald’s, all proved incentives to meet him. And the next time she did so, she was not with her friend.”

The second time Child A met Harwe, she was with Child B, jurors were told, and that Harwe was with a man he claimed was his uncle and driven to a house in Doncaster.

Both girls were given cannabis and soft drinks, the court was told, and Child B was given money for a taxi home.

“Although Child B was allowed to leave in a taxi, you may think the reason for that was that Child A being there alone only enhanced her level of vulnerability, especially given what Child A says what happened after Child B left,” Ms Holmes said.

Jurors were shown a video recorded interview that Child A gave the police, describing being raped by Harwe, which she said had hurt her. Before the attack, she said that she told him no but that it went “in one ear and out.”

“My bottoms got took off and I had sex with him basically,” Child A told the police.

Jurors heard Child A tell the police that Harwe paid for a taxi for her to get home the next day after she fell asleep at the address in Doncaster.

“She told him to stop at least four times, but he did not stop,” the prosecutor said. “He had sex with her without her consent because he did not care whether she consented or not.”

The court was then told about how Child C was introduced to Harwe.

Jurors heard that Child C was told to add Harwe on Snapchat to get e-cigarettes. He was said to have had a picture of a large number of e-cigs on his Snapchat story and the message “Free e-cigs”.

Child C messaged him, jurors heard, asking “How much do you want for the e-cig” and he replied “Meet me, I’ll give you the e-cig for free,” to which Child C agreed.

Jurors heard that Harwe picked her up the next day, and when Child C told him that she was 15 he replied: “It’s fine, age is just age.”

On separate occasions when taking her to Doncaster, it was alleged that Harwe “gave her a hat to put on which partially covered her face saying no one could see her.”

The prosecution said that the reason that he didn’t want anyone to see him with this young girl was because it was an “indication that he knew that she was 16.”

Child C later met up with her friend Child D, the court was told, and Harwe ordered them a taxi to the property where he lived in Doncaster.

“There was mention of a party and Child D said she was excited as she didn’t go to parties often,” the prosecutor said.

The second defendant, Muhamadi, welcomed them to the property. “Harwe organised the taxi with Child C and Child D and Muhamadi paid for it. Different roles, same goal: sexual exploitation,” said Ms Holmes.

The girls were provided alcohol and encouraged to drink more and Child D had a cannabis joint put in her mouth, jurors heard.

Child D was said to have been raped by Harwe after she repeatedly indicated that she did not want to do anything sexual with him, jurors heard. The prosecution said it was the first time that the 14-year-old girl had had sex. “She began to bleed and was panicking as she hadn’t expected so much blood.”

The prosecution said that Harwe then raped Child C.

Jurors heard that she said, “No Stop” and “I don’t like this”.

“He told her to be quiet and he put his hand over her mouth. He put his penis in her vagina and had sex with her. She was trying to bite his hand. He told her to give up. When he finished, she pulled her underwear straight up. He said she needed to shower,” the prosecution said.

Child E was then introduced to Harwe by Child C. Child E, a 12-year-old, was given e-cigarettes, money and cocaine by Harwe, jurors heard.

“Child E describes that she was having sex with Harwe in the bathroom and she was sniffing coke as they had sex,” the prosecutor said.
Jurors were told that he had already pleaded guilty to having sex with the 12-year-old on this occasion.

Ms Holmes said: “There is no dispute that Child E was incapable of consent because of her age. A person under the age of 13 can not in law consent to sex. Child E says it was the first time she had taken cocaine. Neither man took it. She asked Harwe at one point if he was having any and he said no as it prevented him from getting an erection.”

The prosecutor then took the jury through alleged offences against Child F and Child G, after Harwe messaged Child F on Snapchat during the summer holidays offering money and e-cigs.

Child F was said to be afraid when meeting with Harwe, who drove the girls to his house after picking up drinks.

The prosecutor described how Harwe allegedly had sex with both girls, including while Child G had “blacked out.”

“When Child F forced him off Child G, Child G was sick down the side of his bed,” the prosecutor said, adding: “Child G was clearly incapable of consent – a person so drunk that they can not move or speak, a person who is unconscious and vomits cannot consent to sex.”

Jurors heard that Harwe would only let Child G go if Child F agreed to have sex with him, which she did while crying and saying stop.

Ms Holmes said: “If someone is crying it is obvious that they do not consent. If someone only submits because it is the only way out, that is not consent freely given.”

Jurors heard that after he was arrested, Harwe told police officers that he “did not have sex with six out of seven of the alleged victims” and “went on to claim that he did not provide alcohol or drugs to the girls, and it was they who were asking him for those substances and he refused to supply them with either drugs or alcohol.”

The prosecutor detailed that after Muhamadi was arrested, he said that Harwe put him under pressure to let him use the premises and that he had nothing sexual to do with any of the girls.

Harwe and Muhamadi listened to proceedings with support from a Kurdish Sorani interpreter.

The four-week trial continues.