Two men have been found guilty of raping three 14-year-old girls

Two men have been found guilty of raping three 14-year-old girls 

crime reporter(weastar times/wp/Ebc)

Two men have been found guilty of raping three 14-year-old girls who had been plied with alcohol and cannabis.

Bilal Hussain and Shazad Rehman repeatedly raped one girl and also raped two other victims they picked up in the Keighley area of West Yorkshire.

Hussain, 23, of Leeds and 30-year-old Rehman, of no fixed address, pursued teenage girls between 2010 and 2011, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The men are to be sentenced later on Wednesday.

They had denied nine rape charges and supplying cannabis.

'Fresh meat'

Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC had told the court: ''They acted together travelling from their various home addresses in Leeds and Halifax to the Keighley town centre where they specifically targeted vulnerable girls, all under-age."

She said some of the girls, none of whom can be identified, had difficult backgrounds or were emotionally fragile and may have been seeking attention.

''They were out of their depth,'' the jury was told.

''They were supplied with strong alcohol and cannabis, enticed to believe they would have fun, that they were special.

"In truth what was on offer was beyond their control."

Rehman had referred to the girls as "fresh meat", the court heard.

Ms Colborne had told the court the defendants "exploited the girls' lack of maturity, their lack of life experience and to render them more compliant.''

Jurors heard that drink and drugs were given to the girls to reduce their inhibitions, or in some cases to leave them incapable of resisting sexual advances or oblivious to them.

Some of the rapes took place at the Alder House Hotel, Batley, and the Campanile Hotel, Bradford, after the complainants had been picked up by the defendants in a silver Audi, the court was told.

After one of the girls told Hussain she thought she was pregnant, he said she had to terminate the pregnancy or he would kill the baby himself.

Ms Colborne said Rehman had boasted to a woman they could get any girl they wanted.

''He said they had no reputation and if they got them young enough they could keep them forever,'' she told the court.

Both men were also convicted of a series of drugs offences and a charge of conspiring to intimidate a witness.

Neither opted to give evidence during the trial, which lasted a number of weeks.