A GIRL in care was raped by a pimp and his cousin who were today starting prison sentences totalling 30 years.

Jarnal Singh tried to force the troubled teenager into prostitution after getting to know her through a friend.

He regularly picked her up from a care home and raped her in his car or van, Teesside Crown Court was told.

On one occasion, he drove the girl to a Middlesbrough bedsit where his cousin, Hardev Singh, had sex with her.

The offences took place in the 1990s, but only came to light when the victim recognised Hardev Singh on a Youtube video.

A subsequent police investigation in 2014 led to 41-year-old Jarnal Singh, but he claimed he did not know his accuser.

When DNA evidence proved he had fathered her child, he claimed he once had sex with a stranger in the toilets of a nightclub.

The absurd explanation was rejected by a jury which took just 90 minutes to convict him of five rapes and indecent assault.

Former market trader Hardev Singh, 59, was found guilty of raping the youngster once at the end of a week-long trial in February.

The married father-of-four admitted he had a distinctive face and it was him on the video clip, but said he had never met the girl.

The court heard that he raped the teenager after his cousin - a former youth worker - drove her to the flat and left her there.

The victim said Jarnal Singh threatened to slit her throat unless she did as he said and started work for him as a prostitute.

Jarnal Singh, of Stoneleigh Avenue, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 20 years and Hardev Singh, of Mansfield Avenue, Thornaby, near Stockton, got ten years.