TWO girls in care were taken advantage of sexually by a group of men who gave them alcohol in hotel rooms, it has been alleged.

They were deliberately taken to hotels and other men were called when they were drunk so they could have sex with them, it was claimed.

The girls had been groomed and were used for the sexual gratification of the defendants and others, said barrister John Philpotts, prosecuting at Mold Crown Court.

Opening a trial expected to last four weeks, Mr Philpotts said the defendants sexually exploited one or more young females who were, at the time, resident at a home for cared-for children in the Wrexham area.

He said one complainant was moved to a rural care home at Brymbo.

A social worker warned staff she was in the habit of associating with members of the travelling community but was not aware the home was close to a travellers’ site.

It became clear soon after her arrival that she was associating with male travellers from the Wrexham area.

Vans and pick-up trucks began to appear at the home and on one occasion a van drove up the drive and her name was called out using a loud-hailer.

She began to abscond frequently, often in the company of other girls in care.

She would walk down a lane nearby and would be picked up in a van.

“The defendants well knew how old those girls were and, indeed, seemed to be excited by their extreme youth,” the prosecutor alleged.

“They also knew that, though they submitted, those girls did not truly or genuinely consent to what was done to them,” he said.

Mr Philpotts told the jury: “These men used the girls as a sexual resource for their own gratification and that of their associates."

The jury would hear of an incident when associates of the defendants John Delaney and John James Purcell turned up at a hotel and engaged in sexual activity with two girls against their will.

“There were other occasions when other men appeared,” he said.

It was alleged that a man who had not been identified, had sex with one of the complainants.

Sometimes the girls would not wish to drink alcohol but they were told they were boring and would succumb.

Significantly, however, the men did not drink, it was claimed.

They made the girls drunk in order to exploit them sexually because, once drunk, they ‘didn’t really know what they were doing’ and the situation escalated, alleged Mr Philpotts.

The girls would be taken to a hotel, if the intention was for other males to attend.

It would be carefully selected on the basis that booking it did not require evidence of identification.

A room would be selected which was away from the hotel reception so that staff were not aware when a number of other men arrived.

John James Purcell would pay for the room, it was alleged. He would also pay for the alcohol and, sometimes, drugs, it was claimed.

On other occasions they would be taken to a secluded spot away from the public glare.

Sometimes the girls would be forcibly separated and told that if they engaged in sexual activity, they would be reunited.

Other times, the men would threaten to abandon them, lost and far from home.

The men would harass and ‘mither’ the girls until they submitted. Sexual activity would happen every time they met. Sometimes protection would be used, sometimes not.

One of the complainants told police that in retrospect, she felt "dirty and horrible" but at the time ‘..it was an escape from what was going through.

Mr Philpotts said: “She had, of course, been groomed. Often, the girls would be so intoxicated that they were powerless to resist whatever was happening to them.”

The prosecutor described incidents at a Travelodge near Halkyn and in a hotel at Chester.

It was claimed John Delaney and John James Purcell discussed which girl each was going to have and which bed they would use. One girl told how she was paralytic when sex took place.

The prosecutor said it was deliberate sexual exploitation. “Those girls were driven to the Travelodge with the specific intention that they would there be sexually assaulted,” he said.

At the Dene Hotel in Hoole it was alleged that other men were tipped off and six or seven others arrived.

One girl was allegedly being raped, heard shouting, and saw another girl with her head dangling over the side of the bed.

she was being sick with four or five men were around her, engaged in sexual activity with her.

She intervened, lifted her head and told the males to stop what they were doing.

It was alleged the men turned their attention away to her and she told how “it was just like they forced themselves on me”.

Mr Philpotts claimed John Delaney and John James Purcell deliberately arranged for other men to be notified of the presence of the girls in a hotel and invited to attend and take part in the sexual assaults upon them.

One of the girls was taken to a secluded car park near where she had se. with a man not before the court in the back of a silver BMW.

She was scared because she did not know him and had not expected to have sex with him. He had never been identified.

However, by that point, sexual activity had ‘become the norm’ for her and she felt ‘there was no saying no’ because if she did she would have been mithered and harassed until she submitted.

Mr Philpotts said that Todd Wickens collected a girl from the home and John McGrath would be with him.

It was alleged that Wickens had sexual intercourse with her at a time when they were outside the pick-up.

She turned and realised that McGrath had taken his place and was also having in.ercourse with her. “She told him to stop but he persisted,” he said.

John James Purcell, John Anthony Delaney, John Michael McGrath and Todd James Wickens, deny all charges against them.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between December 2011 and April 2012.

Delaney, 33, of Ruthin Road Caravan Park, Wrexham, faces four counts of rape of a girl under 16, four counts of trafficking women within the UK for sexual exploitation, the sexual assault of a girl aged under 16 and arranging the commission of a child sex offence.

John James Purcell, 31, of Crescent Road in Ellesmere Port, faces three charges of rape, four charges of trafficking and one of arranging a child sex offence.

Wickens, 28, of Homestead Lane, Wrexham, faces two charges of raping a girl aged under 16 years, and one charge of trafficking a female for sexual exploitation.

McGrath, 27, of Bryn Hedd, Southsea, Wrexham, is charged with raping a girl aged under 16 years 2011 and 2012.

The trial before Judge Rhys Rowlands is proceeding.