Alleged pimp treated girls "like slaves," sex abuse trial told

One alleged victim — the first to give evidence in the trial of five men and women on abuse charges — told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court that the house was always filled with “Pakistani males”.

One she allegedly knew as Blind Ash, whom the prosecution say is Qurban Ali, who is accused of four offences including rape and indecent assault.

The witness, who said she had been sexually assaulted by one man after passing out drunk, said MacGregor, now of Barnsley Road, Wath, would buy her and Shelley Davies — another defendant — takeaways, make up, clothes, underwear and bedding, adding: “We never needed anything.”

But the woman, now aged 41, went on: “The only thing she (MacGregor) ever wanted us to do was clean.

“We were on our hands and knees all the time scrubbing, washing curtains, changing bedding, we were like slaves.

“Karen was never really in and she used to lock us in all the time — we couldn’t get out because we didn’t have a key."

The woman said she lived at two of MacGregor's houses from being aged around 16 or 17 at Rosehill Avenue and Highfield Road.

The witness said Davies, who was three years younger than her, also lived with her and sometimes other girls did, too.

The alleged victim said she had begun working at In Time Taxis in Midland Road, Masbrough, where MacGregor was an operator.

“But the nights I was not working Karen used to come in in the early hours, at about 2am, and get Shelley to go downstairs with her,” she said.

“When I woke up in the morning, Shelley was back in bed.”

The woman said one night at the Rosehill address she had drank vodka with Davies and six Asian men were there.

She said she was taken upstairs to her room by MacGregor and an unknown male because she was drunk and passed out on her bed.

When she awoke, she said, the man was sexually assaulting her.

She cried out twice loudly for help, which made the man run off, the court heard.

The woman said she had agreed to move in with MacGregor as the taxi operator had told her she would look after her.

“Now I know why, I thought she was my second mother...turned out I was totally wrong,” she told the jury.

“She must have known (about the assault) — why didn't she come upstairs if she cared for me that much?”

Five men and two women deny 63 offences between them.

The trial continues.