A MAN has been found guilty of abducting two teenage girls and raping one of them.

After more than four hours of deliberations, a jury agreed that Imran Khan, 36, had picked the youngsters up in a car driven by Zhaid Mohmmed, 45, in Blackburn town centre, taking them to a house where they were both ‘sexually exploited’.

Khan was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl.

Mohmmed was convicted of sexually assaulting the rape victim’s 14-year-old friend after they were deliberately separated at the house in Chester Street, Blackburn.

The pair had denied all the allegations.

Robert Golinski, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, had told the jury: “They were offered drink and drugs then separated by the men, each of them taking one of the girls.

“The prosecution say this was a deliberate policy by the defendants to get each of the girls alone.”

The 14-year-old girl was then assaulted by Mohmmed, of Boardman Street, Bolton, while the other, who was 15, was raped in an upstairs bedroom by Khan, of Tenby Close, Blackburn. It had been put to the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that she made up the rape allegation to get out of trouble at school, which she had strongly denied.

Khan was found guilty of rape and two counts of abducting a child. Mohmmed was also convicted of two charges of sexual activity with a child and two of abducting a child.

Judge Heather Lloyd adjourned sentencing until May 9 to allow for the preparation of reports.