A woman accused of helping a Bradford prostitute’s client to rape her told a jury yesterday she had been a sex worker herself and would never abuse someone so vulnerable.

Sonia Keach said she had suffered violence on the city’s streets and went to help the alleged victim who was in “a heated argument” about money.

Keach, 35, of Salt Street, Manningham, Bradford, said she had helped the police with the Crossbow Cannibal investigation in the spring of last year and assisted officers with their inquiries into the reported rape of a prostitute this year.

She denies aiding and abetting a Leeds man accused of twice raping the prostitute and wounding the woman’s boyfriend with a dog chain in Dyson Street, Bradford, in the early hours of December 12 last year.

In a separate alleged incident, Keach, her daughter, Gemma Keach, 20, of Dock Lane, Shipley, and Abdul Basit, 34, of Lily Street, Manningham, Bradford, deny false imprisonment and intimidation of the prostitute on January 10.

Aaroon Yaqoob, 21, of Ring Road, West Park, Leeds, denies two allegations of raping the woman.

Mohammed Hussain, 23, of Hessle Mount, Hyde Park, Leeds, pleads not guilty to aiding and abetting the alleged rapes.

Both men deny wounding the woman’s boyfriend with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

The prosecution say the 23-year-old prostitute was raped after Yaqoob accused her of ripping him off.

He demanded his money back after they had consensual sex in a fire escape at Ruby House.

Prosecutor Sophie Drake told the jury the prostitute had been working in the city centre with her partner there to protect her.

Sonia Keach said that last December she was addicted to class A drugs and working the streets to fund a habit that cost up to £60 a day.

She was on Sunbridge Road when she heard a heated argument and went to assist a woman she knew was a prostitute. “I genuinely believed that she needed my help,” she said.

Keach said she had never seen Yaqoob and Hussain before and tried to find out what was going on.

“I was trying my best to help everybody. I was on nobody’s side that night,” she told the court.

She said she told the woman to give the man back his money to get rid of him.

Gemma Keach said neither she nor her mother kept the alleged victim in her mother’s flat and threatened her on January 10.

Gemma Keach said she gave the woman clothing because she was cold. She smoked heroin and crack cocaine at the flat before leaving of her own accord to get more drugs.

The trial continues.