Peterborough Today
February 22, 2015
BREAKING NEWS: A Peterborough restaurant owner groomed girls with McDonald’s meals so they could be raped by him and his friends, the Old Bailey heard today
Mohammed Khubaib, 43, enticed vulnerable girls as young as 12 into spending time with him by giving them cash, tobacco and even flowers, jurors heard.
The Pakistani-born letting agent, who owns Peterborough restaurant ‘Zaika’, allegedly drove the youngsters to properties around Cambridgeshire where they were plied with booze.
The girls would then be used for the sexual pleasure and satisfaction of himself and any other adult who was with him, the Old Bailey heard.
Khubaib is standing trial alongside Manase Motaung, 32, who is said to have shared that interest.
Both men deny rape and child sex trafficking of girls aged between 12 and 16.
Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC said: ‘As a middle-aged Asian man, Khubaib had nothing in common with these young girls; his unhealthy association with them was unknown to their parents or those who had parental control.
‘These were girls who were vulnerable either because of their age, state of adolescent development, background, home circumstances or their unsettled schooling, or a combination of those factors.
‘It was easy for Khubaib to try to take advantage of the vulnerability of such girls, relying on a degree of naivety and immaturity in the girls themselves.’
Married Khubaib, who came to the country around 12 years ago, acted as a ‘friend and helper’, taking girls to addresses he had access to himself or through people he knew, to be entertained, the prosecutor said.
‘It was a form of grooming – bringing the girls into a frame of mind whereby they would be prepared to engage in sexual activity with any adults present at the time,’ he continued.
Khubaib was arrested alongside Motaung, known as ‘Naz’ and a 27-year-old friend at a small terraced house in Lincoln Road, Peterborough on 27 January 2013.
The men had been giving vodka to two 14-year-old girls in an upstairs bedroom and were playing videos, which appeared to contain ‘porn-style scenes’, jurors heard.
The court heard it was the third time that week that Khubaib had been caught in the company of teenagers in similar circumstances.
The restaurant boss would not drink alcohol himself on these ‘grooming sessions’, the jury heard.
Khubaib first came to the attention of police as far back as August 2007, when he is alleged to have forced a 14-year-old to engage in oral sex.
Her friend accepted just £5 for this, but when the girl, who cannot be named, refused he forced her to perform a sex act on him, it is claimed.
Motaung, originally from South Africa, is alleged to have raped a drunken 16-year-old who he met at one of the ‘grooming sessions’.
One of her friends even took photos of the alleged attack on her mobile phone, it was said.
The alleged victim was ‘distraught’ when showed one of the pictures the next day and later began to have ‘flash-backs’ of the incident, it was said.
Another girl, also aged 14, was introduced to Khubaib and Motaung in 2012 by a school friend and the pair would regularly pick them up in a seven-seater vehicle, the jury heard.
‘Khubaib would buy them food (McDonald’s takeaways), other times tobacco; he has also given her or her friends small sums of money.
‘Always, however the girls were being plied with alcohol. For her 15th birthday… Khubaib bought [her] a £40 bunch of flowers,’ Mr Dennis told the jury.
‘So clearly he knew she was under 16,’ he added.