UK gang victim tells of taxi driver rape ordeal

London She was a child of 13 walking along a road in her school uniform when she first met "friendly" taxi driver Mohammad Sajid.

But that meeting would change her life for ever, leading to her being plied with cheap alcohol and taken to a house in Nelson, Lancashire, and raped.

Now, seven years later, she sits alone in a dingy one-bedroom flat, reliving the sickening way she was groomed for sex by an older man she trusted.

Now on medication for depression and suffering from panic attacks, the mother-of-one has little hope that she will ever recover from her horrendous ordeal.

Jailed

On Wednesday, Sajid, 35, was jailed for a total of 12 years for rape, sexual activity with a child, conspiracy and trafficking.

Born in Rochdale, his young victim lived in cramped conditions with her parents, three sisters and four brothers on a run-down council estate.

Her father who had worked as a security guard had started experimenting with drugs while she was a toddler and by the time she was in her teens, he was a full-time heroin addict.

Heroin addict

In order to escape her home life, she followed in her older sisters" footsteps and began "going with" Asian men and "jumping" into their cars.

She said: "I was young and stupid and I just followed my sister and got involved with this guy.

"I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just a kid and I would have agreed to anything."

At the age of 13 she would meet the Asian taxi driver who would end up raping her and subjecting her to years of abuse.

School uniform

Recalling the moment they met, she said she was still in her school uniform walking down a street near her home when he told her to get in to his car so that they could "chill" together.

"He thought I was my sister because we looked very similar. But even when he realised I was her younger sister he still asked me if I wanted to chill with him and he told me to get into the car.

"He handed me this plastic bottle which was full of Boost and vodka and I just started drinking it because I didn't know any better.

"We were driving for quite a long time and were just chatting about random stuff and then before I knew what was happening we arrived in this street with blocks of terraced houses.

Normal house

"It was just a normal house with furniture and it looked like someone lived there.

"It had a couch, telly, fires, beds, wardrobes. He said he was living there because he was working in a cash and carry in Nelson.

"I carried on drinking from the bottle and we just sat in the living room for a bit. But then I just remember feeling really drunk and he started touching me and then told me to go upstairs.

"I just did as I was told because I was a kid and we went into the bedroom and we slept together.

'Totally out of my head'

"I was totally out of my head and can't really remember much. I don't really want to remember and have blocked most of it out.

"Afterwards, as if everything was normal I just got dressed and he told me to get back in the car and then he dropped me back off at home and we didn't talk about what had just happened and I didn't tell anyone."

But the nightmare for the youngster was not about to end. She was forced to continue to have contact with the taxi driver for most of her teenage life.

She said her father would send her round to the taxi driver's house to beg for money in order to sustain his drugs habit.

Father sent her to get money

She said: "My father was on smack and he knew that if I went round to Saj's house and sat with him he would give me money.

"So dad would send me round all the time and I just did as I was told.

"Saj would ask me to sit near to him and then he would grope and touch me and at the time it just felt quite risky because I was young and didn't realise exactly what was going on.

Dirty old man

"I would try and move out of the way but he would want me to sit close to him and I remember just thinking I needed to do it to get the money for my dad so he could go and buy his drugs.

"I shouldn't have let him do that and it makes me think that I got into the wrong crowd when I was younger.

"I try and block it out because I can't bear to think about it. He is a dirty old man and I was young and stupid."

The abuse went on until last year when she was called by police who found her number on Sajid's phone.

"I had no idea that I was part of something so disgusting. It makes me feel sick now."