TWO men accused of lining up to rape a vulnerable schoolgirl outside factory gates told a jury yesterday they were innocent.

Hussain Sardar, 19, and Zain Ali, 20, are among 14 Asian males on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of sexually exploiting the child between May 2011 and June 2012, when she was aged 13 to 14.

Sardar, known as Dolly, of Bradford Street, Lawkholme, Keighley, and Zain Ali, nicknamed Droopy, of Buxton Street in the town, each deny two charges of rape outside a works entrance on Dalton Lane.

It is alleged they lined up with three other males to take turns to rape the girl.

Sardar said he was 14 or 15 at the time and had seen the girl walking around Keighley, and at a burger van, but never spoke to her.

He knew Arif Choudhury, a teenage drug dealer said to have forced the girl to perform sex acts with men, but did not like him.

Sardar said he met Choudhury at the Pupil Referral Unit and he was "a pervert type".

Choudhury once suggested: "Let's go see her," about the girl, but he told him: "No".

"I didn't want to go with him. I didn't like him," Sardar said.

He had never been to the workplace gates in Dalton Lane and had not been involved in any sexual activity with the girl.

Ali told the jury he and Choudhury attended Oakbank School in Keighley. At that time, he saw him up to three times a week and bought cannabis from him.

He first saw the girl in Lawkholme Lane in 2011 when she asked for a cigarette.

She later asked for his phone number.

Ali denied that calls and texts between his phone and hers were from him.

He told the jury: "I am not a rapist," and denied any sexual activity with the girl.

Taxi driver Mohammed Akram, 62, of Holker Street, Keighley, declined to give evidence. He denies having sex with the girl in his cab when he was 59 and she was 14.

Also on trial are: Yasser Kabir, 25, of Belgrave Road, Keighley, who denies four allegations of rape.

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. Israr Ali, 19, of Devonshire Street West, Keighley; Saqib Younis, 29, of Bradford Street, Lawkholme, Keighley; Bilal Ziarab, 21, of Sedgwick Close, Manningham, Bradford; Sufyan Ziarab, 22, of Kendal Mellor Court, Keighley; and Faisal Khan, 27, of Buxton Street, Keighley, who deny two allegations of rape. Rohail Iqbal, 22, of Skipton Road, Beechcliffe, Keighley; Rohail Hussain, 18, of Hawk Street, Lawkholme, Keighley, and a 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who plead not guilty to one allegation of rape.

The trial continues.