TWO cousins are behind bars for the sexual exploitation of a schoolgirl in the 1990s.

A jury convicted Jarnal Singh of five rapes and an indecent assault, and Hardev Singh of one rape.

The verdicts came at the end of a week-long trial at Teesside Crown Court.

The victim told the court she was repeatedly raped by Jarnal Singh in his van after he befriended her.

She said he threatened to slit her throat unless she did as he said and work for him as a prostitute.

One one occasion, he drove her to a Middlesbrough bedsit where his cousin had sex with her.

A complaint was made to police in June 2014 when she recognised Hardev Sing on a Youtube video.

She later picked him out in an identity parade, while a second accuser identified Jarnal Singh from a line-up.

Barristers for both men applied for bail until they are sentenced next month, but Judge Tony Briggs refused it.

He said: “Bearing in mind the verdicts of the jury is significant sentence is obviously inevitable.”

Jarnal Singh, of Stoneleigh Avenue, Middlesbrough, and Hardev Singh, of Mansfield Avenue, Thornaby, will be sentenced on March 7.

Adrian Dent, for Hardev Singh, said he had health problems and asked for a medical report to be prepared.

Andrew Stranex, for Jarnal Singh, said he was prepared to give up his travel documents to get bail.

He told the judge: “I ask that he is given an opportunity over the next three weeks to put his house in order.”