A 39-year-old man begged for forgiveness and said God would punish him after raping a girl aged 14, a jury at Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Mazhar Hussain Shah denies five sexual offences against the child, said to have been committed over a three year period.

Shah, who lived in Bradford at the time but had since moved to an address in Bedford, pleads not guilty to one allegation of sexual assault and four of rape.

The girl told a classmate he had abused her and teachers and a social worker alerted police, prosecutor Nick Askins told the court.

The jury watched a video taped interview the teenager gave to the police in which she stated Shah began by sexually assaulting her and went on to repeatedly rape her.

She said that on one occasion he locked her in a room and forced her to have sex with him.

She was at first confused and unsure what to do about it.

The girl alleged Shah sent her sexually explicit text messages.

“I felt pressure. I should not have given in. I felt scared,” she told the police, adding: “I wanted to kill myself. I felt ashamed.”

Imran Khan, Shah’s defence barrister, put it to the girl that she had invented the allegations.

The trial continues.