A CHILD sex suspect accused of being part of a grooming gang may have been “caught in the crossfire”, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Mohammed Hussain faces three charges of sexual activity with a child and is among nine men on trial accused of grooming and abusing underage girls in Oxford.

He admits having sex with the alleged victim known as Girl 5 when she was 14 but says she told him she was 17.

However, his barrister Eleanor Laws, in her closing speech, said Girl 5 liked her client and said they had had fun together. She said there was also no evidence Hussain had intimidated or threatened the girl into having sex unlike other defendants.

She told the jury they only had to decide whether or not Hussain knew Girl 5 was under age.

She said: “He is in a very different category with just Girl 5 and just this particular issue to deal with.

“Please, if it is possible that he has been caught in the crossfire and it is possible he might not have known her age, please look carefully at the evidence.”

The defence barrister said the girl, now 16, had said on the witness stand that she never told Hussain her age.

She said: “She accepted she actually wanted people to think she was older than she was because of the things she was doing.”

She said Girl 5 acted and dressed older than she was, adding: “She is not someone you would say is obviously a child.”

She later said: “Her version of a good time was to go out drinking and have sex with boys she liked.”

When he took the witness stand earlier this month, Hussain said the idea of a man having sex with an underage girl was “revolting”. His lawyer yesterday said he was never told Girl 5 lived in a children’s home, adding: “He just didn’t know. It was not in her interests to tell him.”

She told the jury: “There must be a doubt as to whether he knew she was 14 years of age.”

Another defence lawyer told the trial that Girl 3, who made a rape allegation against his client, Bassam Karrar, was not reliable due to her “awful, abused, abusive, and desperate life”.

Girl 3 claims Bassam Karrar, 33, raped her at the Nanford Guest House in November 2006. She told the court he beat her, choked her, and urinated on her in the assault.

However, his lawyer Mark Milliken-Smith, making his closing speech, said the girl had lied to avoid getting into trouble after staying out all night and having consensual sex with his client.

He said: “Lying was a way of life and a means of coping.”

He said there were inconsistencies in her account of the rape, adding: “She is plainly muddled and unclear in her recollection – all of which is not surprising considering the life she led.”

The jury will sit again on Monday to hear closing speeches for the final two defendants – Zeeshan and Bilal Ahmed.

The defendants deny all charges. The trial continues.