A TEENAGER said to have been repeatedly raped after four men picked her up in a car on a Burnley street was happy to get in the vehicle, a jury heard.

The girl was happy to drink vodka and go for a ‘cruise’ around Burnley with the men, Mohammed Qasim, 25, Amad Khan, 26, Mohammed Sikander, 25, and Haiyat Khan, 30, who were strangers to her, the town's crown court was told.

The Crown has claimed the girl, then aged 16 and vulnerable, thought the men were going to help her when she found herself alone in the street and with nobody to turn to at 1am, after a row with her boyfriend.

Prosecutor Joe Boyd alleged to the court that instead, the men showed the alleged victim ‘complete contempt’ and their only concern was their own sexual gratification.

Mr Boyd said the men drove the girl to Manchester even though she didn't want to go and, he alleged, they plied her with vodka.

Sikander and the Khans are said to have forced the girl to perform a sex act on them on the journey and Qasim, who was the driver, is alleged to have done the same after they got back to Burnley and he had dropped off his three co-defendants.

Qasim, of Berry Street, Brierfield; Amad Khan, of Whalley Street; Sikander, of Colne Road and Haiyat Khan, of Thursby Square, all Burnley, each deny one allegation of rape, said to have taken place last September 29.

Cross-examined over a video link by James Heyworth, defending Qasim, the alleged victim agreed she had been happy to get in the car, drink vodka and drive around Burnley.

She agreed she had been offered the use of a phone and had tried to dial her number.

The girl, who said she would describe herself as fairly confident at the time, claimed she did not want to go to Manchester.

Mr Heyworth asked the alleged victim: "On your evidence, by the time to got to Manchester, and certainly by the time you left, you had three men force you to carry out a sex act and, even though you were confident in yourself, you would rather then get back in a car of rapists than take your chances on the streets of Manchester? Is that right?

“It worried you that much being in Manchester, did it?” The teenager replied: “Yes.”

Mr Heyworth continued: “Did you feel safe with these lads?”

The alleged victim replied: “No.” The barrister said: “Did you feel safer with them than if you tried to get help on the streets of Manchester?"

The girl answered: “Yes.”

The girl agreed Qasim had taken her back to the street where her boyfriend lived.

Mr Heyworth said: “You didn't say to Mr Qasim, ‘You know what's gone on, these lads have raped me, please, please take me to the police station’, for example, did you?”

The alleged victim said: “No.”

The girl agreed that when the other men got out of the vehicle, she decided to get in the front passenger seat.

Mr Heyworth asked her: “Why, oh why, oh why, did you decide, bearing in mind what you say has gone on, to get in the front passenger seat with your bags, when you could have just stayed in the back?”

She replied: “I don't know.”

(Proceeding)