Refugee paid girl for sexual favours

A MAN who paid a vulnerable underage girl for sex after picking her up in Oldham town centre, has been jailed for 20 months.

Arshad Kharajan, who came to the UK as a refugee in 2004, had been working for a take-away restaurant in the town centre, and was making a delivery when he stopped at the side of the road to talk to the youngster.

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told that the girl said she was 16 when in fact she was a year younger, and what he certainly did not know was that she was in care.

Vanessa Thompson, prosecuting, said that on the night, early in 2014, Kharajan let her into his vehicle and she went with him to make his delivery.

She told him en route that she needed £10 for cannabis, and he later drove her down a dark alley where she gave him oral sex.

Absconding
The court heard she subsequently told police that to get the £10, "I had to give him summat."

When he dropped her off where he had picked her up, Kharajan, of Halliwell Road, Prestwich gave her an extra £10 for a taxi home, and they exchanged phone numbers.

The court was told that they went on to meet quite regularly for sex, but Kharajan did not know she was absconding from care to see him.

Kharajan, who pleaded guilty to paying for the sexual favours of a child under 16, was told by Judge Stuart Driver: "I have had to consider whether sentence could be suspended, but I have not found it possible to do so.

"This was a vulnerable child, though I accept that you were not aware of the full extent of her problems and vulnerability."

The court was told that the youngster who had a troubled background had been sexually active for some time before meeting Kharajan, frequently went missing from care, admitted using drugs, and said she also drank.

On the night she met him, she had been to visit her mother in Oldham but they had a row so she went alone into the town centre.

David Bruce, defending, said Kharajan's behaviour had been more opportunistic than predatory, and his client believed they had gone on to have a relationship, which he said could be viewed as more unhealthy than unlawful.

He said: "This clearly was a young girl with a tragic background. She had been sectioned for several months before this incident, but he would have known nothing of that vulnerability."