ONE of the four men on trial accused of plotting to rape a drunk school teacher was absent from Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told the jury not to speculate about why trainee mechanic Wakar Akhtar did not attend for the seventh day of the hearing.

Akhtar, 21, of Hudson Avenue, Canterbury, Bradford, finished giving his evidence on Monday afternoon.

The judge said: "Wakar Akhtar is absent. He remains absent. There is nothing more that I can share with you on that topic."

He told the jury not to speculate on why Akhtar was not in court and not to draw any adverse inferences.

Akhtar, pizza chef, Najeem Ul-Saeed, 31, of Beaumont Road, Girlington, Bradford; cab driver, Tamseel Virk, 42, of Marten Road, Canterbury, Bradford; and Azad Raja, 38, of Hudson Avenue, all deny conspiracy to rape in the early hours of May 26.

The teacher has told the jury she lost consciousness on the way home from a party celebration in a Leeds pub.

She had no recollection of travelling in Virk's private hire vehicle to Great Horton Park, where Akhtar and his uncle, Azad Raja, took turns to have sex with her on a bench.

Raja, a married man with three children, said he had come to Britain from Spain and knew very little English.

Speaking with the help of a Punjabi interpreter, he told the jury Akhtar took a late-night phone call and said: "Uncle, let's go."

A girl he had never seen before got out of a car on Hudson Road.

"She shook hands with me and she kissed me on both sides of my face," Raja said.

She did not smell of alcohol and her behaviour was absolutely normal.

Raja said he heard Akhtar and the girl using the word "sex".

His nephew said they would all go for a smoke and to chill out.

All three sat on a park bench and the girl began performing a sex act on Akhtar.

Raja said he left to buy cigarettes, looking back to see the girl pulling down her trousers.

When he got back, he had sex with the girl on the bench while his nephew went to the shop.

"She was saying 'Please, my friend.' She forced me," Raja said.

Asked by his barrister, Shirlie Duckworth: "Did she consent to that activity?"

Raja replied: "She did all that to me. I am a simple person and I did not want to indulge in all those kind of activities myself."

The trial continues.