THREE more defendants in the Keighley schoolgirl rape trial yesterday protested their innocence from the witness box at Bradford Crown Court.

Bilal Ziarab, 21, Saqib Younis, 29, and a 17-year-old youth, are among 14 Asian males who deny sexually exploiting a vulnerable girl aged 13 to 14 between May, 2011, and June, 2012.

Ziarab, known as Billy or Browny, told the jury he had learned his lesson after admitting a sexual offence against a different 14-year-old girl when he was a youth.

He insisted he had never seen his alleged victim until the police showed him a photograph of her in school uniform.

The only reason he ever went to "the cop shop" underground car park at the former Keighley Police Station in Devonshire Street was to smoke cannabis.

Ziarab, then of Kendal Mellor Court, Keighley, pleads not guilty to two allegations of rape.

The jury has been told that he pleaded guilty in early 2011 to inciting a 14-year-old girl to commit a sexual offence by exposing himself and asking her to perform oral sex.

Ziarab, now of Sedgwick Close, Manningham, Bradford, was sentenced to a Youth Rehabilitation Order for that offence.

Younis, known as Saqi Butcher because his father ran a butcher's shop in Keighley, denies two allegations of raping the girl at a works entrance on Dalton Lane.

Younis, of Bradford Street, Lawkholme, Keighley, said he had seen her around but had never even spoken to her.

"I can honestly say that this never happened. I was never in her company.

"When I got arrested, I was shocked, confused, scared and embarrassed.

"I am one hundred and fifty per cent sure that nothing ever happened between me and her," he said.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, denies one allegation of raping the girl in the grounds of Cliffe Castle.

He was 12 or 13 at the time and said he did not know the girl and had no contact with her.

He would never have met up with her in public because the mosque elders would have seen and told his family.

Tauqeer Hussain, 23, of Belgrave Road, Keighley, and Nazir Khan, 23, of Buxton Street, Keighley, who both plead not guilty to three allegations of rape, elected not to give evidence, as did Israr Ali, 19, of Devonshire Street West, Keighley, who denies two charges of rape, and Rohail Hussain, 18, of Hawk Street, Lawkholme, Keighley, who denies one allegation of rape.

Also on trial are Yasser Kabir, 25, of Belgrave Road, Keighley, who denies four allegations of rape. Mohammed Sardar, 19, of Bradford Street, Lawkholme, Keighley; Sufyan Ziarab, 22, of Kendal Mellor Court, Keighley; Zain Ali, 20, of Buxton Street, Keighley, and Faisal Khan, 27, of Buxton Street, Keighley, who deny two allegations of rape. Rohail Iqbal, 22, of Skipton Road, Beechcliffe, Keighley who pleads not guilty to one allegation of rape. Mohammed Akram, 62, of Holker Street, Keighley, who denies a single charge of sexual activity with a child under 16.

The trial continues on Thursday.