THERE will be no re-trial after jurors failed to reach verdicts on all counts following a major trial into child sexual exploitation across Oxford.

Prosecutors said today that the final four counts - out of 39 - will 'lie on the file' after three men were convicted earlier this week of preying on two vulnerable teenage girls and sexually abusing them across Oxford.

Naim Khan, 41, of Herschel Crescent, Mohammed Nazir, 44, of Wood Farm Road and Raheem Ahmed, 42, of Startwort Path were all convicted on Tuesday following a trial which began in October.

Afzal Mohammed, 42, of Randall Street, Oxford, was cleared of any wrong-doing and found not guilty of the single count of rape that he faced.

During the major trial into child sexual exploitation, which began in October, prosecutors said that some of the men groomed one victim and repeatedly raped and ‘pimped' her out for sex.

The jury of four men and eight women were told at the start of their trial at Oxford Crown Court that one girl was treated as a 'sexual commodity.'

After a total of 28 hours and 25 minutes of deliberations jurors returned verdicts to 35 of the counts they faced with no decision forthcoming on the four remaining counts on Tuesday.

Khan was convicted of eight counts of rape and seven counts of indecent assault.

He was also found guilty of a further count of supplying a controlled drug of class B to another.

Nazir was convicted of seven counts of rape and eight of indecent assault, as well as one count of supplying a controlled drug of class B to another.

Ahmed was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault and supplying a controlled drug of class B to another.

At a hearing at the same court today prosecutor Alan Gardner, on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, said no re-trial was sought.

The remaining counts were ordered to 'lie on the file' and will not be proceeded with.

After the decision was made Judge Peter Ross lifted a number of previously imposed reporting restrictions.

This means that details of the case can now be reported via social media for the first time and comments on web reports are now permitted.

It can also only now be revealed that the case - which is part of Thames Valley Police's Operation Silk - follows an earlier trial alleging city-wide child sexual exploitation.

In June 2018 a 'predatory and cynical' gang was sentenced for grooming and sexually abusing young girls across Oxford.

They were jailed for a total of nearly 70 years.

During that trial held at Oxford Crown Court in 2017 the court heard that the men on numerous occasions coerced the girls into sex at various addresses across Oxford including at guest houses, in cars and at local parks.

The victims, none of whom can be named for legal reasons, were all from Oxford and aged as young as 13 at the time of the offences.

The abuse, which prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC called ‘routine, cynical and predatory sexual exploitation’ all took place between 1998 and 2005.

Yesterday, as the follow-on trial from that operation came to an end, a sentencing date was provisionally set for February 13 That hearing will be held at the same court and all three were remanded in custody in the meantime.

Speaking after the convictions senior investigating officer Mark Glover, of the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Unit, said the girls had been treated like 'sex objects.'

He said: "These victims were groomed by a group of predatory men who used them for sex without any thought or care about the girls’ well-being or the emotional impact of what they were doing.

"To these men, these girls were not people, merely objects to be used for sex.

"The girls were befriended by these men, who then plied them with drugs, alcohol and sometimes arranged to take them to parties, all of which was very appealing to lonely teenage girls.

"Over time, the girls were treated simply as sexual commodities.

"Some of them were passed around groups of older men like objects and eventually discarded."