THREE men tried to prevent, or dissuade, an alleged victim in a sex grooming case from giving evidence, a jury was told.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Furqan Amjad, 23, allegedly pursued a ‘charm offensive’ against the girl in the weeks leading up to, and during, the trial itself.

He ‘bribed’ her by giving her money’ and was involved in 350 telephone contacts with her in three weeks.

His co-defendants Qasim Hussain, 20, and Ased Afzal, 29, were said to have attempted to sabotage the prosecution by creating, copying, and delivering a sham letter, which purported to represent her declarations and state of mind, but which was nothing of the sort.

The hearing was told how Amjad was the brother of Mohammed Imran Amjad and Mohammed Zeeshan Amjad, who were defendants in the sex case, while Afzal was the brother of Shiraz Afzal, who was also an accused.

Three other men, Omar Mazafer, Mohammed Farooq and Haroon Mahmood were alleged, with the Amjads and Afzal, to have subjected the girl to sex assaults, and rapes, and were standing trial in June last year.

The jury was discharged on the third day after the girl, who was to tell police she was instructed to write the letter to ‘let the boys get off’, refused to go through with her evidence.

Furqan Amjad, of Halifax Road, Ased Afzal, of Limefield Avenue, both Brierfield, and Hussain, of Bacup Road, Rawtenstall, each deny an allegation of attempting to pervert the course of justice, between last May and June.

Amanda Johnson, prosecuting, said the girl attended Burnley Crown Court to give evidence last June 13.

It began with the playing of a DVD recording of an interview she had given and, after a couple of minutes, she said she didn’t want to watch it any further.

There was clearly a problem with the prosecution continuing and the crown applied to discharge the jury.

It was suspected the comp-lainant had been subjected to interference and an investigation began.

The prosecution said Amjad met her the night before and asked if she was going to go through with it, and even contacted her while she was inside the court building waiting to give evidence against his brothers.

Miss Johnson claimed that between last May 19 and June 13, there was ‘prolific’ mobile tel- ephone contact between Amjad and the girl.

She sent him six texts from the witness room at court in less than half an hour. One text said: “I’m dropping it”.

Miss Johnson alleged Hussain and Afzal were involved with the letter, which was a ‘crude and unconvincing put-up job’.

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