The distraught mother of a girl allegedly plied with drugs and repeatedly raped by three men sobbed in court as she revealed how the youngster had told her she wanted to die.

Visibly shaking, with tears rolling down her face, the woman described her daughter as being "absolutely terrified" as she waited to speak to police about the ordeal Ivan Turtak, Kevin Horvath and Ernest Gunar are accused of subjecting her to in a Dover flat and a Folkestone caravan.

The Slovakian nationals are on trial at Canterbury Crown Court where they deny a string of charges, including rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration.

The men were complete strangers to the girl who, the prosecution say, was "targeted, exploited and passed around" for their sexual gratification after they spotted her in a supermarket car park.

Giving evidence, her mum recalled the moment she was told the youngster had been "kidnapped, drugged and raped" - and how she made sure the clothes she had been wearing were bagged up ready for police.

She also told her daughter to provide a urine sample for testing.

Asked by prosecutor Hannah Llewellyn-Waters why she had taken these measures, she replied: "I knew that if what she had told me was true, that these men would be found."

With police having been immediately alerted, she then accompanied her daughter to a specialist suite for a formal interview to take place.

When asked how the girl appeared to her in those moments as she waited to be questioned, the mum replied: "Absolutely terrified, telling me that she wanted to die. She went very withdrawn, a completely different child."

The court heard the interview began, but the girl became "extremely upset" and so a break was permitted to allow her to speak to her mum, who had been waiting in a separate area, in the presence of an officer.

Recalling the moment she saw her daughter, the woman told the court: "She came downstairs and spoke to me, begging me if I could sit in the interview with her.

"I promised her that if her first version of events wasn't correct, she wasn't in trouble and that I was always there.

"She wanted to go home but I promised her she could get through it. She was clinging on to me."

The court heard the interview recommenced, and was followed by another a few months later.

Before that took place, the girl wrote about her alleged ordeal in a notebook.

Explaining how this came about, her mum said: "When they (police) called for a second interview, I asked her if there was anything she wanted to chat about.

"She told me she didn't want to talk face-to-face and wanted to write everything down."

The jury heard that having done so, she gave it to her mum, who handed it over to police.

During cross-examination by defence barrister Ronnie Manek, who is representing Gunar, the court was told the youngster had had difficulties at home and school.

But although the mum agreed her daughter had been bullied, she refuted the suggestion she (the girl) had herself been a bully.

She also rejected the idea her child was "horrible", only to be reminded by Mr Manek that she had once used that word herself to describe her behaviour.

Asked about the girl's use of cigarettes and alcohol, the mum said she was not aware of her smoking or drinking.

At the start of the trial last week, the court was told by Ms Llewellyn-Waters that Turtak and Horvath were the first to meet the youngster as she walked alone across an Asda car park.

Having been said to have had her attention caught by a wave from Turtak, she was then encouraged to get into Horvath's Skoda with the promise of a cigarette.

But once in the back seat, Horvath drove off, taking her first to Turtak's flat and then to an "old, dirty" caravan belonging to Gunar.

The court heard she was abused multiple times at both locations, as well as in the car. She also told police that they had given her cocaine, a drugs pipe to smoke, and gummies.

When the youngster was located, she claimed she had "walked to Folkestone and back", had not slept and had changed from her clothes into ones she had found by the roadside.

But once home, she was quizzed by her dad.

In his statement to police, read to the jury by the prosecutor, he described how his daughter's first account of what had happened "didn't add up" as the clothes she was wearing were "Nike and designer" branded.

So, he took her upstairs at their home to speak to her alone.

"We sat on my bed next to each other. I explained she would not be in any trouble or be told off but I didn't believe what she had told the police," he stated.

"She started to cry and said that there was these men. I asked her what had happened. She said the men had raped her.

"She said it happened in a park. I gave her a hug and told her to sit on the bed and wait as I needed to go and tell her mum.

"I didn't want to push her too much by asking too many questions. I was just glad she had told me what had happened."

He said that once police had been contacted, he suggested that they "got as much detail while it was still fresh in her mind" and so put pen to paper.

"As she spoke, her mum was writing down what she was saying," the dad explained. "The conversation wasn't fluid and we were having to prompt her as to what happened because a lot of her responses were 'I don't know'."

The court heard that as well as claiming to have been attacked in a park, she described being in a car and taken to a caravan.

The youngster also revealed, said her father, that the men asked her about a passport and "said something about Germany".

She also said they had "raped her more than once", and used cartoon character names for each other but would "mix them up like a game".

After the allegations had been made by the girl to police, subsequent tests revealed traces of crystal meth and THC - the breakdown product of cannabis - in her system.

Det Con Linda Gavin, who was involved in interviewing the youngster, told the jury of her emotional state at the time.

"She was extremely upset, frightened, reluctant to speak. She was just frightened - a frightened child," she added.

Turtak, 38, from Dover, denies rape but has admitted taking an indecent photo of the girl standing naked in his bath.

Horvath, 25 and also from Dover, is on trial accused of sexual assault of a child but has pleaded guilty to three charges of rape and one of assault by penetration.

Gunar, 27 and from Folkestone, denies assault of a child by penetration, sexual assault of a child, and two offences of rape. He has, however, admitted one charge of rape.

The trial continues.