Ofrene for den nye grooming-saken i England, som nå går for retten, ble kalkulert og kynisk rekruttert av de ni tiltalte mener aktor. Systematisk gikk mennene etter sårbare jenter som savnet kjærlighet og omsorgsfull kontakt med voksne. I denne første såkalte grooming-perioden, fikk jentene nettopp omsorg og oppmerksomhet, samt rusmidler. Deretter startet voldtektene og prostitusjonen av dem.

Som vi skrev i går, er det knapt til å ta innover seg hvilken kynisme som råder i en gjeng som den som nå sitter på tiltalebenken i England, der ingen av de ni tiltalte erkjenner straffeskyld etter en tiltale på 51 straffeforhold.

Et av ofrene skal ha sagt til en venn i grooming-fasen:

‘I just want to be loved. I’ve never been loved and this shows me love.’

Grooming-perioden kan vare i inntil et år før overgrepene starter, mener aktor.

An 14-year-old girl was groomed by members of a child sex ring who plied her with alcohol and drugs before abusing her, the Old Bailey heard today.

The young girl – who lived in a foster home since she was five-years-old – was introduced to members of the group by one of their other victims who lived in the same children’s home.

She was forced to have sex with her abusers and other men in flats, alleyways and woods in and around Oxford in the summer of 2006.

Prosecutor Noel Lucas QC said the girl – now 21 – had ‘no choice’ and told a friend: ‘I just want to be loved. I’ve never been loved and this shows me love.’

She spoke to police at the time, but was too terrified to make a detailed complaint and only came forward after the suspects were arrested for other matters last year.

‘She said that she had no choice,’ said Mr Lucas. She coped with her ordeal by ‘shutting down’ her emotions, he added.

The court heard how the nine men in the gang hung around outside schools and care homes to recruit vulnerable victims they could use and abuse.

Girls as young as 11 were then groomed for up to a year by being lavished with attention and plied with alcohol and hard drugs, it is alleged.

Victims were then encouraged to recruit other girls who could be raped and abused, jurors were told.

The ring’s third victim was just 12 when she began to be groomed by brothers Mohammed, 28, and Bassam Karrar, 33.

She had been adopted the previous year and would often bunk off school and drink alcohol.
‘The men gave her alcohol and cigarettes and later cannabis,’ said Mr Lucas.

‘She loved the attention they showed her. It made her feel important and – wholly mistakenly – she felt protected by them.

‘This was the grooming phase, to get the confidence of these girls. At this time, the men asked nothing in return and did not abuse her sexually.

‘Gradually, over a period of time, they secured her confidence.’

It was only when she was thirteen-and-a-half that the abuse began and she was ordered to have sex with men brought to a flat in Oxford.

‘They cajoled her into having sex with the men,’ said Mr Lucas. ‘They did so in a jokey manner, as if she was being asked to take part in a dare.’

‘It was all done rather cleverly,’ he added.

De tiltalte har opphav i Pakistan og Egypt, flere av dem er familiefedre.