A migrant grooming gang who plied a 13-year-old schoolgirl with alcohol and made her their sex slave, using her as a “toy” in a year-long campaign of sexual abuse, has been jailed in Britain.
Four men were sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on several counts of rape, sexual assault, and actual bodily harm for the abuse conducted between August 2018 and April 2019.
Three of the attackers, now aged between 21 and 26, arrived in the northeast English city from Syria, while a fourth fled Kuwait and claimed asylum in Britain.
The court heard how the “extremely vulnerable” victim was repeatedly abused in several locations across the city over a sustained period, including the castle keep in the city center, behind a burger restaurant, and at her own home. She was regularly plied with alcohol and cigarettes and warned that she would be harmed if she resisted their advances.
Prosecuting counsel, Anne Richardson, told the court that two of the attackers, Syrian brothers Mohamed and Omar Badreddin, were “aggressive and rough” with the teenager and raped her one after the other on numerous occasions.
During one count of rape at her house, the brothers told her they would kill her or traffic her to another country if she protested or told anyone about the attack.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the victim revealed how the attacks had turned her childhood into a “living nightmare” and how she resorted to drug abuse and self-harm after the attacks. The trauma also saw her drop out of school and ruined the lives of her close family members left devastated by the ordeal.
She described being “tortured” and “petrified” by the men and admitted she remains unable to cope with the “horrific” impact the experience has had on her life.
At the sentencing hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, defense counsel for the migrants sought to mitigate the nature of the crimes and explain why their clients should get a reduced sentence.
One explained their client had grown up in a warzone in Syria, while another said the brothers had been “haunted” by the horrors witnessed in their homeland, including the death of their older brother.
The asylum seeker from Kuwait claimed to have been “immature and easily led” by the rest of the gang, while the third Syrian revealed he had suffered from childhood cancer and noted he had not been the gang leader.
Upon sentencing the quartet, Judge Rippon said the attackers had used their victim like a “toy,” using her for their own pleasure with a flagrant disregard for her feelings or desires.
“Even when she begged you to treat her more kindly and told you truthfully she was harming herself and could not cope, you made fun of her,” the judge told the Syrian brothers.
The following sentences, as reported by the BBC, were passed down by the court:
- Omar Badreddin, 26, for five counts of rape, jailed for 18 years
- Mohamed Badreddin, 23, for six counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration, jailed for 13 years
- Huzaefa Aleboud, 23, for assault by penetration, two counts of rape, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, jailed for 5 and a half years
- Hamoud Al Soaimi, 21, for three counts of sexual assault and one assault by penetration, jailed for two years suspended for two years with 180 hours of unpaid work
The Badreddin brothers and Aleboud were also added to the sex offenders’ register for life, while Al Soaimi was added for 10 years.
