Young girls were sexually exploited by a group of men who subjected them to depravity and perversion, a court has heard.

Six girls were used by men, including nine defendants from the Oxford area, the Old Bailey jurors were told. And men were said to travel from Bradford to abuse the youngsters.

One victim was only 12 when she was forced into prostitution. The court clerk was allowed to sit as he took half an hour to read the charges.

Noel Lucas QC, prosecuting, said: “This case involves the sexual exploitation of children – young girls – by groups of men in the Oxford area.”

The men deny the 51 counts, including rape, trafficking and organising prostitution between 2004 and last year.

The accused include two sets of brothers, Akhtar Dogar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 30, and Bassam Karrar, 32, and Mohammed Karrar, 38. The others are Kamar Jamil, 27, Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, Assad Hussain, 32, Bilal Ahmed, 26, and Mohammed Hussain, 24.

The trial is expected to last until April. The defendants are in custody.

Mr Lucas said: “The defendants, and others not before the court, used and abused the six complainants persistently over long periods of time, sometimes in groups, for their own sexual gratification and the sexual gratification of others.

“The depravity of what was done to the complainants was extreme.”

He told the jurors that the details of the case would make them uncomfortable. Mr Lucas said the men “actively targeted vulnerable young girls from the ages of 11 or 12”.

Sometimes the abusers would come across them while they were playing truant or out drinking.

Mr Lucas added: “There is evidence that the men deliberately targeted children who were out of control.

“The girls were then groomed in a variety of ways such as being given gifts or simply by being shown the care and attention they craved.

“Having secured their confidence the men would ply the girls with alcohol and introduce them to drugs such as cannabis, crack and sometimes heroin.”

The youngsters would become addicted to the drugs and this made them even more dependent on the men who exercised extreme physical and sexual violence on them. One of the complainants described being in a “living hell” during a period of alleged abuse from 2004 to early 2012, the court heard.

The girls were often taken to guest houses or empty private properties in Oxford, some of which were used solely for abuse, Mr Lucas said. Men would also travel from Bradford, Leeds, London and Slough to pay to have sex with the girls in appointments arranged by the defendants, the court heard. The trial continues.