AN ALLEGED grooming victim told a court how she would get drunk to block out bad memories of her attacker.

The 14-year-old is the first complainant whose evidence has been heard in the trial of three men and a youth from Middlesbrough who are accused of manipulating and sexually abusing seven girls.

She said she regularly held conversations with one of the defendants, Ibrar Mahmood, via the messaging service BlackBerry Messenger, admitting they were sometimes flirty with him saying he wanted to have sex with her.

The girl said: “Sometimes he would say stuff like sexual things, but not all of the time.”

A number of pre-recorded interviews with the 14-year-old were played to the jury in the trial at Teesside Crown Court.

In one she described how she bumped into Mr Mahmood in Middlesbrough's Albert Park, who told her: “I have not had it in ages,” and pushed her onto a park bench.

The defendant was said to have pulled the girl's head towards his crotch, but she pushed him away saying she felt dirty.

She was asked why she had not revealed some of her information about the incidents earlier to police.

She said: “I had buried everything. It was just bad memories and I wanted to forget it. I would get drunk to get those memories away.”

Mr Mahmood, 18, of Breckon Hill Road, Middlesbrough, denies four charges of sexual activity with a child and three of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Shakil Munir, 32, of Tollesby Road, Middlesbrough, denies four counts of sexual activity with a child and child abduction.

Co-accused Junaid Butt, 18, of Kensington Road, Middlesbrough, denies sexual activity with a child and arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence.

A 17-year-old male youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence.

The trial continues.