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Were rape accused men ‘wrongly identified’

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Latest news in Yorkshire: September 20, 2018 05:02:44 PM

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Barristers defending two men accused of rape have claimed the alleged victim
has wrongly identified the pair.

Nabeel Kurshid (34), of Weetwood Road, Rotherham, and Iqlak Yousaf (34), of
Tooker Road, Rotherham, are accused of raping the girl between 2002 and 2003
when she was 14 or 15.

The prosecution say Yousaf was known as Iqqy and Kurshid as Nabby.

Another unidentified man, known as Shiraz, is also said to have been
involved in the rape which allegedly occurred in a lay-by near Sherwood
Forest.

After the incident, the woman became pregnant and had a termination.

The pair are on trial at Sheffield Crown Court alongside six other men who
are accused of 28 child sexual exploitation offences against five girls.

The woman, now aged 31, said she was confident she had identified the right
men.

Ms Julia Smart, defending Kurshid, who she said was also known as Nabeel
Akhtar Kurshid, claims the complainant has wrongly identified her client
after seeing his Facebook account, which was under the name Nabeel Akhtar.

The woman disputed this and said the Nabby from her teenage years and the
“Facebook Nabby” are the same person, adding: “I would never forget.”

Mr David McGonigal, defending for Yousaf (pictured below), said to the
woman: “You told police that your memory had been affected by some drugs you
had become addicted to and you took a lot of when you were 16 to 17 –
cannabis and amphetamine.”

The woman replied: “Specific little details, the main bits, I never forget.

“It was just tiniest details – descriptions of body parts, scars, that were
not coming back to me.”

Mr McGonigal suggested she had met Yousaf in 2004 – after the Sherwood
Forest incident – while he was working as a taxi driver – which the woman
denied.

Mr McGonigal said: “Are you mixing him up?”

She replied: “Everything I am saying is correct.”

Describing the Sherwood Forest incident, she said: “I felt like they had
gone through me like one after another. I was taken advantage of.”

Mr McGonigal said: “During this incident you said you hadn’t had alcohol but
had taken cannabis.

“You were able to decide you were able to have sex with Nabby, able to get
out the car.

“You say he took you for a walk and then you knew what he wanted and you
laid down and had sex.”

The woman answered: “Yes.”

Mr McGonigal said: “You were not so comatose you didn’t know what was going
on?”

She said: “Yes that’s correct.”

He said: “The next person has laid down with you – you have not said you
didn’t want to have sex.”

She replied: “I didn’t say anything.”

He said: “When you first spoke to police in 2017, you didn’t really describe
the incident as rape and you felt words were being put in your mouth.”

She replied: “I still don’t describe it as rape. I still don’t describe it
as grooming.”

The barrister added: “You have made a mistake in relation to identifying
Iqqy as the person you slept with and took you to Sherwood Forest.”

She answered: “I made no mistake. I am confident this is the person from the
incident.”

Re-examining the woman, prosecutor Ms Michelle Colborne, asked: “How quickly
after Nabby got off was the next man there?”

She replied: “Not even a minute.”

Ms Colborne said: “Did any of these men ask to have sex with you.”

She replied: “Not the second two, no.”

The trial continues.

News source: rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk

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