A former Labour peer repeatedly sexually abused two younger children when he was a teenager, a court has heard. There were claims that Nazir Ahmed, previously known as Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, had carried out serious sexual acts on others even before he was 14, jurors were told. The 63-year-old is on trial at Sheffield crown court where he denies two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16, indecent assault of a boy under 14 and raping a boy under 16, all alleged to have occurred in the early 1970s. Ahmed has dismissed the allegations as “malicious fiction”, the court heard on Wednesday. He is on trial alongside his brothers, Mohammed Farouq and Mohammed Tariq, who have both been charged with indecent assault of a boy under 14. They were not in the dock after the judge ruled they were not fit to stand trial, but the jury was told it would still have to determine if they had committed the alleged acts. Opening the case for the prosecution, Tom Little QC said the trial concerned allegations of repeated sexual abuse that took place over a number of years, with the victims being too young to stop it at the time. “This was not isolated or innocent sexual experimentation by children,” he said. “It was abuse, plain and simple.” The complainants only went to the police in 2016, more than 40 years after the alleged assaults took place, the court heard. The woman went to South Yorkshire police first, followed by the man 12 days later. The two then spoke on the phone and the woman recorded the call. The court heard the recording, in which the man said of Ahmed and his two brothers: “All three of them abused me. I didn’t know about you. I’m sorry.” Little said the recording was evidence that the man went to the police independently of the woman and without her knowledge. The barrister said: “If it was concocted in this way then it was a highly sophisticated ploy for which there is no evidence.” The court heard Ahmed was also accused of abusing a young primary school-aged child when the defendant was under 14, but is not charged with doing so because the law at the time said under-14s were not capable of rape or attempted rape. The law was changed in 1993 but Ahmed can only be prosecuted according to the law at the time. When first interviewed under caution by police in May 2016, Ahmed answered “no comment” to every question, jurors were told. At a second interview, in September 2016, he was more forthcoming and denied the allegations, Little told the court. The trial is expected to last three weeks. The defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges.