A TAXI driver accused of abducting a 14-year-old girl and having sex with her in a lay-by claimed the teenager's mother asked for money to keep quiet.
Shakil Munir admitted exchanging explicit messages with the girl but said he never sexually abused her.
The 32-year-old told the jury at Teesside Crown Court on Monday he met the girl and her two friends after they called for a taxi.
The girls did not have any money but Mr Munir said he agreed to give them a lift because they were not going far.
The girls said they were all aged 16, the defendant told the court.
He said he was later contacted by one of the girls on Facebook and the pair exchanged messages, adding: "I was going through a bad patch and I was bored. We just started talking."
The girl claims Mr Munir had sex with her in his taxi in the early hours of the morning after picking her up from her home.
However, Mr Munir denied any sexual activity with the girl and rejected a claim he had threatened to throw her out of his taxi if she did not do what he wanted.
The court heard the taxi driver received a message on his phone from the girl's mother while they were out.
The woman warned the defendant that she would call the police and have him "branded a paedophile" if he did not return her daughter.
Mr Munir said the girl's mother wanted to speak to him and it was only when he visited her home later that morning that he found out the teenager was only 14.
It was during this conversation that the defendant claimed the mother asked for money.
"She said if you give me some money I'll keep it quiet - we will call it squits," Mr Munir said.
"She asked me for £500. I said I had done nothing wrong."
Shakil Munir, of Tollesby Road, Middlesbrough, is charged with four counts of sexual activity with a child and a single charge of child abduction.
Two other men deny various charges including sexual activity with a child.
A 17-year-old youth is charged with three counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence.
The trial continues.
Share