A CHILD sex suspect accused of “preying” on an underage girl has told the Old Bailey she must have got him confused with someone else because of drink and drug abuse.

Bilal Ahmed was the last defendant to give evidence in the trial of nine men accused of sexually exploiting girls in Oxford.

The jury has now heard all the evidence in the case and will return on Tuesday when closing speeches are due to begin.

Ahmed, who took the stand yesterday, is accused of having sex with the alleged victim known as Girl 5 when she was 14 in 2011.

He is suspected of giving her drugs and alcohol with his cousin and fellow defendant Zeeshan Ahmed before having sex with her.

But the 26-year-old, of Suffolk Road in Maidenhead, told the jury he had only met her briefly twice when he went to Oxford to visit his cousin.

He said she had told him she was 17 and was “seeing” Zeeshan.

Now 16, Girl 5 claims Bilal Ahmed had sex with her twice at Zeeshan Ahmed’s flat in Cowley Road.

But Ahmed, wearing a grey three-piece suit, told the jury: “That definitely did not happen. Definitely.”

And Ahmed replied “no” when his barrister Grahame Jones asked him: “Did you control her? Did you intimidate her?” But Ahmed said he did not think the girl was deliberately lying.

He said: “I seriously don’t know why she has said that but I definitely did not have sex with her. I think she is confused. It’s all the alcohol and drugs she has been taking.

“She must have some issues. She is confused obviously.”

And he later said: “She says she has had sex with loads of men and she cannot remember who she has been with. It’s all that crack cocaine and alcohol, it’s affecting her.”

His cousin Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, denies two charges of sexual activity with a child after Girl 5 and 6 both claimed he had sex with them.

Bilal Ahmed yesterday told the court both girls had told him they were 17.

Prosecutor Neil Moore, cross-examining, said Girl 5 “clearly” remembered having sex with Ahmed and had told the court she could picture it in her mind.

And he said to Ahmed: “You knew perfectly well how old these young girls were. And it’s quite fanciful to suggest they both independently volunteered their ages to be 17.”

And he told the jury Girl 5 had spoken about how Ahmed had been nice to her and asked her why she had been self-harming. But Ahmed denied it, adding: “It’s like a fantasy she has just come up with.”

And he also denied it when Mr Moore said: “I am suggesting you and your cousin preyed upon the fact that she was a vulnerable girl.”

The trial has run for 12 and a half weeks and evidence has come from six alleged victims. Five out of the nine defendants chose to take to the witness stand to defend themselves.

Judge Peter Rook yeaterday told the jury he hoped to send them out to consider their verdicts for the 66 charges on May 1.

The defendants deny all charges.