THE foster mother of the alleged victim of child prostitution told a jury yesterday how her daughter was sent across the country for sex.

She was speaking at the trial of Tilal Mahdi in Oxford Crown Court, who has been accused of sexually exploiting teenage girls in Oxford.

The 36-year-old, of Friars Street, Hereford, denies committing a range of sexual offences against three girls.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, referred to the girl as her daughter and said she started disappearing for hours and then days at a time.

She told the jury: “When she came back she would be in a terrible state.

“She was dishevelled, dusty, often in sexy, skimpy clothes I didn’t recognise.

“She often had bare and bleeding feet and be caked in orange makeup.

“She would often be drunk or coming off some sort of drugs.”

The witness said she would be called to collect her daughter from parts of Oxford but then further afield in Coventry, Birmingham and London.

She said: “There was nothing I could do.

“She would jump out of my car at the traffic lights and I wouldn’t hear from her in three days.”

She was speaking about the second of three complainants.

In relation to one victim, Mahdi is accused of conspiracy to rape a girl under 16, conspiracy to indecently assault a girl under 16, and another serious sexual offence, between June 5, 1996, and June 4, 1998.

He is charged with conspiracy to rape, trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation, arranging or facilitating child prostitution and rape in relation to a second girl, allegedly abused between July 17, 2005, and July 16, 2008.

And he is accused of raping a third girl on March 24, 2006.

The trial continues.

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