Pizza shop owner on trial over rape allegations

A ten day trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard allegations that Sherif Khalil, 57, carried out the offences over more than a decade.

The jury was told one of the alleged rape victims was aged between 11 and 15 at the time.

Khalil of Sandy Lane, Worksop, had a financial interest in a pizza shop in South Yorkshire and had worked at pizza parlours in Worksop and elsewhere in north Notts.

He pleads not guilty to a total of 15 charges including four counts of rape of the younger woman.

It is claimed he raped the other woman, in her mid-30s, in 2005.

He also faces charges of indecently touching a third woman who was aged between 15 and 17 at the time.

Michael Auty, prosecuting, said when he was arrested Khalil told the police all the women wanted to have sex with him and that was why the false allegations were being made.

Mr Auty said someone in the witness box had been telling ‘a pack of lies’ and he suggested it was Khalil.

He added that the three women would have had to be ‘thoroughly wicked’ to come to court and give the evidence they had, if the allegations were false.

The youngest woman told the court that Khalil had said that if she told anyone he would kill her.

Richard Thatcher, defending, told the jury his client had been called a liar, cruel and a misogynist by the prosecution.

He said: “You may not like this man. You may think he is not a particularly attractive character. But that does not make him guilty.”

He added that Khalil knew about the allegations and had had time to disappear abroad before his arrest, but he had not done so.

Khalil protested his innocence and maintained they were a series of false allegations against him, said Mr Thatcher.

Judge John Milmo has been summing up the case this morning (Monday 4th February), after which the jury will go out to consider its verdict.