8 People Including a Support Group Founder Charged with Child Rape, Abduction, etc.

Charges involve 14 Rotherham girls

Karen MacGregor

THE founder of a support group for families in North East Lincolnshire has denied conspiring to procure a child to become a common prostitute, false imprisonment and conspiracy to rape.

Karen MacGregor, 58, helped set up the Grimsby branch of the Kinkids support group at Riverside Children's Centre last year.

She appeared at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday along with seven other people who all pleaded not guilty to a range of alleged offences involving 14 girls in Rotherham.

They include rape, abduction and indecent assault and span a timescale between 1990 and 2003.

The defendants were arrested as part of South Yorkshire Police's Operation Clover investigation.

All are due to go on trial in December.

Judge Sarah Wright granted bail to six of the eight defendants - including MacGregor, who now lives in South Yorkshire.