Prosecution barrister Felicity Hemlin claimed that Farim Khan and Zaid Zahir, both 18, were part of a group of four men that encountered the girl when she was out socialising with another young woman in York city centre last summer.
Khan had sex with her against her will under the trees next to the path between Piccadilly car park and Clifford’s Tower and Zahir engaged in a separate sexual act with her against her will near North Street, she alleged.
The two then encouraged the other two men with them to have sex with the girl, the court heard.
The prosecution barrister claimed at York Crown Court that the two defendants said: “Four men, one girl, imagine that.”
She told the jury Khan’s actions toward the girl made a third member of the group feel “sick” and that the third man resisted the two defendants’ suggestions because he believed the girl was drunk.
The third man claimed he had heard the girl say she didn’t want sex during the sexual act between her and Khan.
Ms Hemlin said a group of young women came across the girl on her own “in a distressed state” at 4.09 am. She told them she had been sexually assaulted and they rang 999.
“The prosecution say this case is about two men taking advantage of a vulnerable drunk young girl when they went out on August 27 into August 28 last year,” said the prosecution barrister.
“She told both men separately she didn’t want to do anything sexual with them because she was too drunk. They both ignored her, they both raped her.”
The afternoon after the night when the rapes allegedly occurred, Zahir made a series of Google searches about the definition of rape and whether it was rape to have sex “with a drunk girl”, alleged Ms Hemlin. The searches also involved questions about the punishment for rape and police finding DNA.
Khan, of no fixed address, and Zahir, of Rosebery Street, off Leeman Road, York, each deny a charge of rape.
Each told police they had had sex with the girl and each claimed it was consensual.
Opening the prosecution, Ms Hemlin said the girl went out with a friend socialising, starting in the early evening and continuing into the early morning, by which time they were drunk.
“That is when they first met both defendants. They continued to drink,” she said. She claimed Khan and Zahir were part of a group of four men and were separate from the girl and her friend.
The girl’s friend was so drunk she passed out. The friend later left the girl, who continued to drink and who, the barrister alleged, was given drinks by the men.
The prosecution barrister alleged that a forensic scientist calculated the girl would have been twice the drink drive limit at the time of the sexual acts.
The trial continues.
