A father-of-three has told a jury he did not even know a young teenage girl he and his four co-defendants are accused of sexually abusing.

Mohammed Taj, 37, of Aireview Terrace, Broughton Road, Skipton, denies having sex with the girl in a car and in a flat above Caesars takeaway in Newmarket Street, Skipton, between April 2005 and April 2007.

The customer services adviser with a holiday company told a jury at Bradford Crown Court today he had known his co-accused Mohammed Shabir, 36, of Hawk Street, Keighley, since he opened Caesars in the early 1990s.

He said he did not know any of the other defendants at all well.

He could not recall seeing the girl at Caesars and had never spoken to her, to his knowledge.

Questioned by his barrister, Stephen Couch, Taj said he had certainly never taken her out in a car to Silsden or Embsay to have sex and had never been to the flat above Caesars with her.

On trial with Taj are Shabir, known to the court as Shabir Senior; Mohammed Zackriya, 21, of Springfield Road, Keighley; Abid Ali, 27, of Cark Road, Keighley and Raj Mohammed Shabir, 32, referred to in court as Shabir Junior, of Neville Street, Keighley.

Their alleged victim, now in her late teens, cannot be named for legal reasons.

The defendants all deny sexual offences against her between April 2005 and April 2007, when she was 14 or 15.

The trial continues.