An underage girl was raped by a former market worker and ‘treated like some sort of commodity or plaything’ by a group of men, a jury was told.

The alleged victim claims she was also picked up in Accrington by two men and taken to a hotel where she was raped and locked in a bathroom.

Six men, including some current and former Accrington market traders, are standing trial at Burnley Crown Court accused of various sexual offences against the same victim dating back to the 1990s.

The defendants deny all the charges and the claims made against them.

Paul Evans, prosecuting, told the court that Amar Amin, who was brought up in the Accrington area, and his ‘friend’ Nadeem Arif picked up the complainant in Accrington and drove her to a park in Blackburn and give her alcohol and drugs.

The jury was told that she was then taken to a wooded area and was forced to the ground by Mr Amin - known as ‘Omar’ - who was holding her by her neck.

She was then raped by former Accrington market worker Mr Arif - known as ‘Big Naz’ - and after the attack ‘laid on the floor for several hours’, it was claimed.

Mr Evans told the jury that afterwards the complainant returned home and ‘felt too embarrassed believing that it was her fault because she got into the vehicle with the males’.

In a separate alleged attack the girl was allegedly picked up in Accrington by Mohammed Rafique and another man who the jury was told is not medically fit to stand trial’, the hearing was told.

Mr Evans said they drove around Accrington and Burnley before taking her to a hotel in Manchester and locking her in a bathroom for two hours.

The jury was told that the men then raped her before putting her back in the room.

The prosecutor said the alleged incident was reported at the time to police and doctors who examined the complainant found bruises ‘consistent with the assault she had described’ and that there was DNA evidence of sexual activity between both men and the girl but that despite the investigations ‘no prosecutions were undertaken’.

Proceeding