Woman tells jury she lied in Telford teen sex case

The young woman said in a statement almost three years ago her friend had been crying and asking for a tissue to clean her hands. At

Wolverhampton Crown Court the witness, now aged 18, admitted to a jury that it had not happened and what she said had been a lie.

It was said to have happened when her friend was in a car with 22-year-old takeaway delivery driver Noshad Hussain four years ago.

Questioned by Mr Mark Weekes, prosecuting, the witness, who cannot be named, said that what she had said had been deliberate. "It was not a mistake. It was a lie," the young woman said.

The teenager also said she told police she had previously met Hussain and one of his friends and had been in a car at Hadley with them.

However, having seen a recent photograph of Hussain in a newspaper she was now saying she was mistaken.

She had named Noshad Hussain as one of the men, but revealed for the first time in the witness box that it was not the defendant.

Hussain, of Regent Street, Wellington, denies four allegations relating to sexual activity with a child.

He also denies a charge of facilitating child prostitution by driving another Telford teenager to be sold for sex to restaurant workers between September 2008 and December, 2009.

The witness has told the court that when she was 13 she and her 14-year-old friend were taken in separate cars by Hussain and another man to Dothill Park in 2008. Her friend had been in the car with Hussain and later told her that she had slept with the defendant.

Under cross-examination by Mr Dean Kershaw, for Hussain, the witness said a few days later her friend told her Hussain had been 'horrible to her, but that nothing else had happened'.

She told the jury that she had contacted police recently to alter her statement made in 2009 because she 'did not want to be seen as telling lies'.

She also told an officer she did not want to give evidence at the trial because she was 'worried and scared' about repercussions.

The trial continues.