Teenager ‘groomed Sheffield girls for drink, drugs and prostitution’

A jury heard Amanda Spencer, now 22, exploited nine girls - some as young as 11 and most in the care system - before forcing them into a life of alcohol, drugs and sex.

Michelle Colborne told Sheffield Crown Court Spencer would tell them to lie about their age and dress provocatively.

She would then allegedly pocket the cash earned by the girls, seeing it as “far more productive and profitable to co-ordinate a pool of prostitutes, than to work for drug money all by herself”.

Miss Colborne said: “Many of the victims in this case were in the care system or marked as ‘missing from home’ at the relevant time, those still at home experiencing difficulties to varying degrees.

“All were lacking in self esteem and the wherewithal or sense to protect themselves from exploitation.”

Spencer denies a string of charges, including arranging or facilitating a child sexual offence, inciting or causing a child to become a prostitute and arranging or facilitating the prostitution.

She is on trial alongside five men who are charged with offences connected with the alleged abuse of the girls - who ranged from the ages of 11 and 20.

Lee Unwin, 26, and John McLachlan, 65, deny paying for the sexual service of a child. McLachlan is too ill to attend court.

Kareem Ahmed, 29, is accused of arranging or facilitating travel for the commission of a sexual offence, and Bashdar Hamadamin, 26, faces a charge of rape. They deny the charges.

A fifth man, who cannot be named, denies three counts of sexual assault, one on a child under the age of 13.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2011 in the Sheffield area of South Yorkshire.

Miss Colborne told the jury: “Exploiter or exploited? A likely issue for you to consider from the start is whether Amanda Spencer was a victim herself.. whether having a troubled start, she turned that situation on its head and lured others into a similar life for her own ends.

“The prosecution say that a victim of exploitation would have known how degrading and abusive that life was.

“She would have spotted the inevitable vulnerabilities of youngsters like herself and would have known that by introducing them to drugs and alcohol, to men for sexual favours she was introducing them to the same degradation and abuse.

“Amanda Spencer was a fraud, say the prosecution. She hung around the town centre identifying and befriending vulnerable children.

“She made them feel loved, she gave them a shoulder to cry on, a friend who purported to understand whatever sadness they were experiencing in their lives and in turn lured them into a life of abuse, which she exploited and profited from. “She referred to them as her sisters or cousins when asked to account for who they were by people in authority.

“Although the children knew they were being sold for cash, their own drug and alcohol addiction sere so entrenched that they were incapable to extricate themselves.

“She told them how to dress more provocatively, to lie about their age and to close their minds to the reality of the sexual experiences, concentrating instead on the drugs.

“Those who had the temerity to refuse to do as they were instructed felt her wrath. She was violent and they were frightened of her.”

The case continues.