Two men on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of raping and assaulting schoolgirls after plying them with drink and drugs have declined to give evidence.

Shazad Rehman, 30, and Bilal Hussain, 23, are accused of picking up vulnerable teenage girls and taking them to hotels and a house to abuse them.

Yesterday, Kim Hollis QC, barrister for Rehman, and Tahir Khan QC, representing Hussain, said they were calling no evidence on their behalf.

Judge Jonathan Rose said the jury could, if it wished, draw such conclusions and inferences it saw fit.

Prosecutor, Michelle Colborne QC, has told the jury Rehman, of no fixed address, and Hussain, of Neville Road Avenue, Leeds, targeted vulnerable underage girls.

She said they cruised the streets of Keighley and Halifax, using the names Yaz and Naz.

One 14-year-old girl is alleged to have suffered multiple rapes at the hands of both men.

Miss Colborne said Rehman boasted the girls were “fresh meat”. They were told they “would have fun and that they were special”.

The jury has been told that girls were taken to the Campanile Hotel in Roysdale Way on the Euroway industrial estate in Bradford, and the Alder House Hotel at Batley. They are said to have been ‘stoned’ on cannabis and alcohol.

Both men plead not guilty to charges of rape and supplying cannabis to underage girls.

At the close of the prosecution case, Judge Rose directed the jury to find Rehman not guilty of two allegations of rape.

Rehman, Hussain and Yassar Adalat, 31, of Milton Place, Halifax, also deny witness intimidation.

A third defendant, Raksar Nawaz, of Rhodes Street, Halifax, was cleared on the direction of the judge of all charges against him. He was discharged after being acquitted of supplying cannabis, possession of cannabis with intent to supply and arranging or facilitating the commission of a sexual assault on a child.

The trial continues.