Shropshire Star

CSE trial: Inconclusive test results on passport, jury told

A fraud investigator has told the trial of a group accused of sexually assaulting a woman that tests on a passport suspected of being forged proved “inconclusive”.

Published
Birmingham Crown Court

Mohammed Ali Sultan is among five defendants accused of assaulting the alleged victim 17 years ago at various locations, including a churchyard in Wellington, Telford, between the age of 12 and her mid-teens.

The trial being held at Birmingham Crown Court was told checks were made on Ali Sultan’s passport following ‘doubts’ over the entry and exit stamps made at an airport in Pakistan in 2002 and 2004.

However, independent fraud expert David Brown told the jury he compared the stamps issued in Ali Sultan’s and his mother’s passport together. He told the jury if the passport had been a forgery, the stamps had been made with the correct security ink, and that blurring may have been caused by overlaying or double stamping by the immigration officer.

“I suspect it went off (stamped) at an angle and bounced off,” Mr Brown said.

The case so far:

Miss Michelle Heeley QC, prosecuting, put to Mr Brown: “In this case are you saying that it was genuine?”

Giving evidence for the prosecution Mr Brown replied: “I could not find any evidence that it was forged. I found it inconclusive.”

Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, denies two charges of rape and three of indecent assault. The prosecution alleged he took the woman to meet other men, called her names, hit her and pulled her hair.

A transcript of his police interview following his arrest was also read out for the jury. In it the defendant said he grew up in the Victoria Avenue area of Wellington. He denied being associated with co-defendant Amjad Hussain whom he stated was significantly older than himself.

Hussain, 38, of Acacia Drive, Leegomery, denies indecent assault. Shafiq Younas, 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, denies indecent assault.

Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, denies rape, while co-defendant Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Mafeking Road, Hadley, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of indecent assault.

The trial continues.

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