A YOUNG woman has this afternoon defended her claims she was raped and sold for sex as a child.

The unnamed witness, known as Girl 1, was questioned by a defence barrister at the Old Bailey trial of nine men accused of raping and selling young girls for sex in Oxford between 2004 and 2007.

Now in her 20s, she claims Kamar Jamil, and Akhtar and Anjum Dogar raped her and sold her for sex between the ages of 12 and 15.

And this afternoon she defended her claims at the court when Jamil's barrister Sally O'Neill suggested her client was not responsible.

She said: "I haven't come all this way six or seven years later to tell a lie about it."

The witness is due to be questioned by Akhtar Dogar's barrister Andrew Jefferies tomorrow.

The defendants deny all the charges.