One of the victims of the Asian sex gang convicted today of abusing a number of teenage girls has bravely recounted in heart breaking detail how she was recruited by another girl to have sex with ‘up to five different men in a day, sometimes every day, at least four or five times a week’.

The girl, who was 15 when the abuse started and even got pregnant by a member of the gang, said that she was plyed with free alcohol and cigarettes and free taxis. But in the end the men said they wanted ‘something back.’

She went on: ‘At first she felt dirty and ashamed, but after a while it had been going on for so long and so many different men and that it just became like… I didn’t feel anything towards it anymore’.

In an interview published below released following the trial, the girl revealed she had gone to the police in 2008, but at the time they said there was no chance of a conviction, because , in her words ‘ it weren’t really heard of then… Asian men with white girls’. She revealed that despite an arrest, the abuse continued.

Harrowing: The girl, who was 15 when the abuse began, has spoken of her ordeal at the hands of the sex abuse gang (picture posed by model)

The girl has dark hair drawn up high at the back. She is wearing leggings and a T shirt. She frequently fidgets, variously flicking her hair away from her face or else rubbing her fingers together when they're resting in her lap.

She frequently breaks into a nervous laugh.The girl was asked about the white girl who acted as her recruiter.

'I started going out with her and she introduced me to these men and we'd get free alcohol and cigarettes and food and free taxis and things. At first I thought it were great (giggle) because nothing had happened, like nothing sexual.

'I just thought "I can get all this stuff for free". And then I ended up living pretty much with this girl because I thought how good it was and I could do what I want and stuff.

'That's when the relationship turned bad with my mum and dad because of the way I was acting.

'Then one day we went to the kebab shop and the first incident happen.'

She is asked why she thinks she was attacked on this occasion. What was it like when they were giving her these things?

'I just thought...like you don't think them things will happen, do you? You don't expect anything like that to happen. I just thought I was having a good time with this, getting drunk and stuff. I didn't realise. I was young and I didn't think they'd want me...you know what I mean.'

Did she see other girls being treated that way? Other girls in the same situation?

'Just the girl who was taking me there. I knew her sister had been going as well.'

Was it all very friendly? What did they say? What was the chatter?

'Yeah, they were quite friendly. They didn't really talk much, like, they'd talk among themselves really.

'We'd be upstairs and they'd be downstairs, like serving, and they'd come up now and then and have a chat to us for five minutes. It was just all right. I thought like...it made me feel like I was pretty.

'I never thought they'd do what they did to me because you don't think that do you? That that will happen.'

'He asked me to come upstairs and I didn't really think anything of it. Then he was basically saying about all the things he's bought for me and he wants something back for it. Then I was saying no, like, I was kind of saying it like in a giggly way.

'The way he was going on, like, as if he was pressuring me. I felt like if I'd said it nastily to him he could have hurt me. I tried to say no in a nice way but he just weren't having it.'

So he just forced himself upon you and it was the start of it happening a lot. Why didn't you go to police? Explain what it was like. Why did it keep happening?

'It was...I was already living away from home by that point and my relationship with my mum and dad weren't too good and I was living with this girl and she kind of like changed like. She would be intimidating and pushing me to go and at that time I was scared of her and I was scared of them as well and... I don't know.'

Grooming: Takeaway shop Balti House in Heywood, Greater Manchester, where girls were targeted by the gang. The shop is under new management now

How did you cope with it? At first you felt special? How did you come to terms with it?

'At first I felt really bad and dirty and ashamed, but after a while it had been going on for so long and so many different men and that it just became like...I didn't feel anything towards it anymore.

'It weren't me any more. It just became like something I had to do and I just couldn't get out of it. Like once you're in it you're trapped. It just became like a daily life.'

How often and with how many men?

'Towards the end it was like, it could be up to five different men in a day, sometimes every day, at least four or five times a week.'

Did it take the same pattern?

'By that point it was...they would arrange with the girl and they'd arrange a time and they'd come and pick me and her up and we'd go to the place, a flat or a house, and there would be different men there waiting.

'There were quite a few men who would be there quite a lot and there's other men who would pick us up and take us to different places for the other men waiting. But there was also a lot of men that I'd only see once or twice.'

How did they know about her? She is asked if she had a lot of phone numbers on her phone.

'I didn't have a phone at all through that time. It was all done through (the other girl). The men were getting in touch with her, mostly the main men, and then they would arrange a time and they would pick us up from her house.

'We'd get in the car and they'd drive us and there would be other men waiting.'

She's asked about the trouble in a takeaway in August, a few weeks into the abuse.

'I'd got really drunk and...I'd gone in and I'm really drunk and I'm angry and I smashed the counter in the takeaway and they rang the police and got me arrested.'

You'd not been attacked that night?

'When I went in there one of the other men he were trying to touch me and...I think I just took the opportunity because... I was drunk.'

What happened when you were arrested?

'I went to the police station and they charged me.'

Gulity: Mohammed Amin, left, 45, was found guilty of conspiracy and sexual assault today, while Abdul Qayyum, 44, right, was found guilty of conspiracy

You told your dad as well (as well as police that she was being abused). What made you suddenly say something?

'Because it had just gone too far and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to go or how to get away from it.'

How did it feel? A relief? How emotional did it feel?

'I was scared telling them because I didn't know what the consequences would be from the men. Because I knew what they were capable of. Because they'd threatened me.'

You were hoping that by speaking up something would happen?

'I hoped they were going to do something and it would stop.'

The police interviewed you about it? You had the underwear. What were you able to show and tell the police to corroborate your story?

'I did an interview and gave them the knickers. And I described the places where it had happened and the main man and the other one as well.'

How did she feel about the decision not to prosecute? And the fact that it took nearly a year. How did she feel while waiting all that time?

'It just carried on. I didn't see him (the oldest defendant) because I think he got arrested, I don't know. But everything was dropped but I didn't see them again but I was back in the same position and she was introducing other men to me. It just started again with different men and more men this time and that's when it started becoming like up to five men a day.'

So it was worse after telling the police?

'Yeah.'

How did that make her feel?

'I felt let down. But I know that they believed me...but...because they said to me at the end that something should have been done but the CPS just would not - what's the word? - prosecute is it?

'So I felt...It's like, then, in 2008 it weren't really heard of...Asian men with white girls. Nobody like...it was just unheard of. I've never heard of it. Now it's going on everywhere.

'You think of Muslim men as religious and family-minded and just nice people. You don't think...I don't know...you just don't think they'd do things like that.'

Abuse: This takeaway - now under new management - was at the centre of the abuse ring in its previous guise of Tasty Bites

Do you think it's a cultural thing? Racial?

'In my situation it was all the men were Asian and all the girls were white, young schoolgirls.'

Did you ever get a sense that there was a reason for that? And that there was a reason Asian girls were not involved?

'I don't know, like...Asian girls, they marry each other don't they and things like that...I don't know, I think white girls are more vulnerable because of drinking and Asian girls don't do anything like that, do they?'

How does it make you feel, learning that the CPS doubted that a jury might not believe you?

'I just think it was just unheard of. Nobody knew anything...I'd never heard of it myself. Maybe that's why they didn't prosecute.'

Do you think that being worried about the race element might have put them off?

'I don't know.'

You told the police, you told your parents. What brought it to a close?

'Social services got involved through school because Asian men were picking me up and dropping me off and I was coming into school dirty and smelly and smelling of alcohol sometimes, and then I got pregnant and social services said to me that if I don't leave that house they'll remove my baby at birth and I were frightened to go because I didn't know what they would do. ..the men.

'They would come and find me. But I went to live with my mum and dad. But after I moved back in I was getting phone calls and people were like, taxi drivers were parking outside my mum's house just watching the house and I recognised them and I'd be getting phone calls off the girl and the men and that went on for months. I would not go out of the house on my own for nine months or something without my mum or dad because I was frightened what could happen. Then eventually I moved out of the area because I just couldn't stay there any more.'

You then found out that the men would be prosecuted after all. How did that make you feel?

'At first I thought "Is there much point in going through it all again", but I did it because it's...they'd just carry on and all these other witnesses, other girls it's happened to, obviously it's carried on after me and it would probably still be going on with different girls and more men getting involved now.

'I just hope now people realise it does happen and how it happens and how they do something about it and they now doing something about it and justice will be done.'

Was she aware of any other girls? Girls in care homes?

'I did know one girl cos she was the girl I was staying with, her sister. But I don't know any of the other witnesses... I don't know their names.'

Were some of the girls in care?

'I didn't know anything about any other girls.'

You want other girls to understand what happened and that this is a kind of abuse that's not been known about much in the past. Has it been hidden away? How has it been kept quiet for so long?

'I just think girls that it's happened to, they're probably too frightened to get out of what was going on because it's like a circle. T

'here are so many different men and you're being forced to sleep with these other men for them to gain money from selling you out. They frighten you and you're scared of them and obviously that's how they make you do it. I think the girls are too frightened to get out of it in the first place to tell somebody.'

Some of the girls believe they're in proper relationships? Did you?

'No, but I know the girl I was staying with was in a relationship with one of the men and so was her sister. But it's not a relationship. They're just brainwashing you so you think that they love you so you'll do what they say. It's not a normal relationship when your boyfriend is getting you to sleep with all his friends for money.'

What would you say to young girls out there if you could warn them?

'I just think, like, if there is an older man like in their forties or fifties and they're buying you all this stuff and going you all these things they're not doing it for free.

'A man that age doesn't just want to hang around with a schoolgirl and they will do it, whether you willingly let them or they force you to. Once you get so far into it you just can't get out of it.'

What do you think of them now?

'I just think what they did to me was evil. They ripped away all my dignity and all my last bit of self-esteem and by the end of it I had no emotion whatsoever because I was used to being used and abused daily. It was just blocked out, it was just like it wasn't me any more. They just took everything away and I just think hopefully they'll pay for what they've done.'

Will you ever be able to put it behind you?

'It will always be there but I know how to deal with it, like I can deal with it. I've had a lot of problems in the past, suicide attempts and all sorts, and drinking and...but I think now I know that something's being done to prevent it happening again it's a relief really because I don't want any other girls to have to go through that. Once it's over I can put it all behind me."

Her future?

She wants to help other victims to help 'prevent things like this happening'.

What of the decision not to prosecute the female recruiter? Was that because she was a victim too? Annoyed?

'I'm annoyed, but I think she was a victim to begin with. But it's no excuse to do what she did. She must have been groomed to start with to do what she did to me and I do think she should have been charged because maybe she was a victim at first but it's no excuse to go and take part in what they're doing - to lure girls in and get paid for it which is what she was doing.'

Does she think she would have suffered the abuse had the recruiter, a girl of similar age, had not been around? Or was the recruiter fundamental to what happened to her?

'For me it was...I don't think it would have happened if I hadn't met her because she was the one who introduced me to these men and that's how it all started. But it could basically have happened without her.

'Young girls are vulnerable and somebody giving you free things and most girls would take it, you know.'

Does she feel let down generally? By the police? Council? School?

'I don't feel that the police have let me down because I know that they did all they could. It was the CPS (who) would not take it.

'I don't know. I just feel like it should be more out there. People should know about this because it is common, it's going on everywhere and people need to know so they can spot the signs. Teachers need to know, social services need to know so they can do something about it, because nobody did anything for me. That's probably because nobody knew about this going on.'

How widespread was it? Other men? Other victims? More than the five girls and 11 defendants?

'I think so, definitely. I know there's 11 men on trial but there's a lot more that I know myself. I don't even know how many that I had to sleep with that I didn't want to. I couldn't even count them in my head it's just that many and I think it must be happening to a lot more girls as well, because I know it's just...'

Does she think it's still going on?

'I do think it could still be happening because it's a common thing. I met a lot of men, maybe 30 odd, something like that. So it is quite a lot and there's only 11 on trial and these rings get bigger and bigger as I know. I just think it's a very common thing that not enough people know about.'

Where would you be now if you hadn't broken away?

'I don't know. I wouldn't be where I am today. I don't know. Probably on drugs? Dead even? Still doing the same thing?'

How do you feel about yourself? Brave? Strong?

'I'm glad that I've done something about it. I feel I've finally stood up to them and something is going to happen. I'm proud I've done that.'

Brave?

'Yeah.'

But it wasn't easy?

'No.'

How was her experience of the court?

'It was awful because they were making out that I'm lying and it was upsetting.'

Some of the men have tried to say you were asking for it?

'I just think it's ridiculous some of the things they're coming out with. How could I make that up? It was too big to lie about. There's other girls that it's happened to by the same men who I don't even know that are saying the same thing. How could they make that up? It's just ridiculous. How can 13, 14, 15-year-olds run a business empire of prostitutes? It's just stupid.'

And hurtful?

'Yeah, because I know it's not true.'

The night in August 2008 when she was arrested...

From an attack a couple of weeks back, I think.'

Why had she retained the knickers for so long? Was it in the hope of them providing evidence for the police?

'I'd taken it (she means them, the knickers) to my mum's house and I didn't want to put it in the wash in case my mum saw the stain because it was a quite large strain. So I hid them. Then when I came and told the police I got them and gave them to them.'

What should happen to the men assuming they're convicted?

'I just hope they are found guilty and they are sentenced because I just want justice really. They've...after what they've done to me...I just think they deserve some...I can't think what the word is.'

What sort of sentence?

'Just as long as they face some kind of sentence and they are found guilty because if they're found not guilty it's just going to be like...I don't know, it's just going to be awful.'

What does she think of the oldest defendant? What sort of person is he?

(As she answers, she's nervously stroking her hair to the left of her face)

'Horrible. He's manipulating, intimidating. At first he seemed lovely, but he's just out to get what he wants and he'll do anything to you to get that. He's horrible.'

And the other men?

'Billy - Adil Khan - and Abdul Aziz - Tariq - because they were quite central to it as well. They're the same as him really. They're the main men.'

What of their personalities?

'They start off nice and then they just change once they know they've got you. Then basically you just do what they say because of what they'll do to you if you don't. You know that from the threats and the tone of voice when they speak to you and the things they say.'

What does she hope for?

'Just for people to recognise that this does go on a lot and that it's white girls that are targeted by Asian men.'