YOUNG girls were too “afraid” to object to sexual abuse at the hands of a gang who sold them for sex, a jury at the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Nine men are on trial accused of being part of a child sex ring in Oxford.

Six girls, aged between 11 and 15, were prostituted and gang raped between 2004 and last year, the historic courthouse heard.

Prosecutor Noel Lucas said one complainant, described as Girl 2 as she cannot be named, was driven to houses or flats with Girl 1 and made to have sex with men.

When she refused to have sex she was burnt with a lighter and told she would be shot.

Mr Lucas said: "She didn't want to have sex with any of the Asian men. She did so as she was afraid of them."

And he saidKamar Jamil, Akhtar and Anjum Dogar were responsible for the abuse in 2006.

The girl, Mr Lucas said, told a friend at the time: "I have no choice, I just want to be loved, I've never been loved and this shows me love."

Mr Lucas said she was taken to properties in Cowley Road, Hertford Street, London Road and also the Nanford Guest House in Iffley Road.

The girl was so scared she only came to the police when she saw the news coverage of the arrests last March, he added.

The alleged sex crimes are just some of the catalogue of "depraved" abuse outlined by the prosecution this week.

Many of the details are too distressing to publish.

The defendants, aged between 24 and 38, deny all 79 charges against them which include rape, sex trafficking, and child prostitution.Mr Lucas said Girl 3 was also taken to places where she was made to have sex for money aged between 13 and 15.

She identified her abusers as Akhtar ‘Spider’ Dogar, Anjum ‘Jammy’ Dogar, and brothers Mohammed and Bassam Karrar, Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas said she was groomed for about a year before being made to have sex with other men. She believed she would suffer violence if she refused, he said.

He said: “She felt she had no choice but to have sex with the men who came to the flat.

“It all appears to have been done very cleverly.”

The court also heard the Dogar brothers took the girl to the Nanford Guest House “virtually evèry day” to have sex with men.

Mr Lucas said: “The Dogar brothers told her they owned her.

“She lost all sense of trust and control and just got on with what they wanted her to do.”

The girl said one of her “customers” at the Iffley Road guest house was Assad “Ali” Hussain. She said he was “big drug dealer” who gave her "the creeps".

Mr Lucas said Bassam Karrar once punched the girl in the face and threatened to kill her when she refused to have sex with him. He then raped her despite her pleas that she was pregnant, he said.

The jury also heard the girl referred to Bassam as “Sam the Rapist”.

Another girl had sex with Mohammed Hussain and Assad Hussain between the ages of 12 and 14, the court heard. The pair’s DNA was also found in her underwear. Another had sex with Zeeshan and Bilal Ahmed when she was 15, Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas finished his opening statement telling the jury: “There is no room for prejudice or sympathy in this trial.”

The jury will not sit in court today as lawyers discuss legal issues. The first witness is due to give evidence on Monday.