A gang of men “groomed” and sexually abused an underaged girl at a “party house” over several months, a court has heard. The men from around the Blackrod are accused of a string of child sex offences committed against the girl between 2016 and 2018, when she was under 16. A trial before Liverpool Crown Court this week heard how the alleged abuse, which involved men and teenagers several years older than the girl, centred around the village of Blackrod.
Prosecutor Ben Lawrence said: “The prosecution say that she was groomed and that as part of that grooming, she was plied with alcohol, cannabis and cocaine.” He added: “At various times she considered herself to be in relationships with a number of the defendants, however that feeling was not mutual.” The trial opened at Liverpool Crown Court (Image: Newsquest) Mr Lawrence told the court the group used what was then the home of Cory Barrett, 24, in Blackrod as a place to take the underaged girl.
He said that she was a “young, naïve, impressionable and intoxicated child”, who they introduced to cocaine and cannabis. Mr Lawrence said it was not the prosecution’s case that she had never consented for sex, but that she had still been raped and abused repeatedly by the men in different ways. He said that though they used Barrett’s house for their own purposes “it is clear that his co-defendants looked down on Mr Barrett as a rather pathetic character".
He added: “They treated him with some distain.” B.
