Alleged sex attack at Sunderland party may have been 'planned', court told

The alleged victim claims Omar Sharif pounced on her in a bedroom during a gathering in Sunderland after giving her free lines of MDMA.

A friend who was at the party with the woman, said she saw her "panicking" when she left the room where she had been alone with Sharif.

The witness told police during video interview, which has been played to jurors at Newcastle Crown Court, she had been warned there were "not nice people" at some of the gatherings.

She told detectives she and her friend had been invited to the party by a girl, who appeared "angry"that they left after the alleged sex attack and who had gone on to deal drugs on a regular basis on behalf of Sharif.

When asked by the police officer why she believed they had been invited, the witness said: "For us to sleep with Omar or his friends."

She said she thought the girl dealer would have been rewarded with drugs for herself in return for sexual favours from young women.

And when asked about Sharif's role in this, the witness said: "I think he has had it planned with (the teen dealer)."

The witness said she took no drugs herself and had left the party as soon as her friend told her about the alleged sex attack.

Prosecutors claim undergraduate Sharif, who drove a flash car with a personalised number plate, is a serial sex attacker as well as a drug dealer, which he denies.

Sharif, 22, of no fixed address, who has admitted some drugs offences, is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court where he denies three offences of supplying MDMA, five charges of rape and one of sexual assault.

He is being tried alongside Milagros Sanchez, 24, who denies facilitating sexual exploitation at her rented flat at Chester Road, Sunderland, where it is claimed a teenager was raped by two strangers.

Luke Richardson, 20, of Ponden Hill, Sunderland, and Georgi Karaboykov, 34, of Horatio Street, Sunderland, both deny rape and assault by penetration in connection with what happened at Sanchez's flat that night.

They both claim the alleged victim consented to what went on.

Sharif's brother Amer Sharif, 19, of Brunton Terrace, Sunderland, denies perverting the course of justice over claims he tried to tamper with the police investigation.

Prosecutor Gavin Doig has told the court Northumbria University student Omar Sharif preyed on women he gave drugs to after they "caught his eye".

Sharif denies supplying MDMA to or attacking the woman at the party.

The trial continues.