Two of the youngest children ever to be charged with rape in England and Wales went on trial at the Old Bailey today.
The boys, both aged 10 at the time of the alleged crime, are accused of forcing an eight-year-old girl to have sex with them repeatedly, in a hallway, a lift, a dustbin store and in a field near where all three children live in Hayes, West London, last October.
The boys, now aged 11 and 10, looked tiny sitting in the middle of the court between their mothers and solicitors. They deny two charges each of rape and two charges each of attempted rape of a child under 13. None of the children involved can be identified for legal reasons.
The jury of six men and six women were able to see the girl in a videolink from an ante-room of the court. She came in holding the hand of an usher, who lifted her on to a chair. At one point the judge told her to take a blackcurrant juice bottle away from her mouth so that he could hear her.
The court was played the girl’s video interview with specially trained police officers the day after the incident. She is seen clutching and playing with her teddy bear as she tells how she had been playing with the two boys and a younger child, a boy aged 5, when the older boys offered to take her to see her friend.
They led her into the hallway of a block of flats, where, she said they assaulted her.
Speaking in hushed and hurried tones, the girl said that she was taken to a bin shed and assaulted before being taken to the bushes and then a garden area where she was assaulted again.
Rosina Cottage, for the prosecution, told the court that when the victim’s mother and younger sister went to fetch her from the fields, they bumped into the mother of the younger defendant and the children’s five-year-old playmate.
When the boy’s mother asked the little boy where her son was “he said that he was in a nearby field and that he was with (the girl) and that he was hurting her”, said Miss Cottage.
He pointed over to the field and they went to find the children. The girl’s mother went into the field and hunted in vain for some time.
“As she was walking out she saw (her daughter) with the boys and asked what they had been doing. They all said nothing,” added Miss Cottage.
The mother asked for her daughter’s scooter back from the younger defendant.
But as they walked home, the woman “could see things were not right with her daughter”. In the car, she asked her what was wrong.
Miss Cottage told the jury: “She told her mother that they had taken her to some flats and taken her to the top floor.
“She said that she had been taken to a bin shed where they moved the bins across so she could not get out."
She told the court that the girl said she was assaulted at both locations before she was taken to the fields. The girl told the boys to leave her alone but they assaulted her again.
The woman went to see the boys’ parents, who were not in, but spotted the older boy. Miss Cottage said she asked what happened but he replied “nothing”.
The younger boy joined them, and allegedly said, without prompting: “I didn’t touch her.”
The older boy was said to have added: “It wasn’t me. It was (the other boy).”
The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, and lawyers in the case dispensed with their robes and wigs. The judge, wearing a dark grey suit, sat where the court clerk normally sits so that he was on the same level as the boys.
The jury was told that sitting hours had been shortened and other steps were taken because the defendants were so young.
In a second video interview two months later, the girl said that one of the boys had thrown her scooter into the bush.
She said: “They said if I didn’t pull down my pants, they won’t get my scooter from the bush.”
The trial continues.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 124170.ece
Starting young
Starting young
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Starting young
Ten year olds don't decide to do this without some underlying reason.
I reckon some one should have a damn good chat to their parents and have a look at what kind of lifestyle they are subjected too.
I reckon some one should have a damn good chat to their parents and have a look at what kind of lifestyle they are subjected too.
Bah!
Re: Starting young
This story was on the morning news today.
One commentator sighted the fact that more crime being commited by younger and younger children everyday. He said it has a lot to do with Respect. Respect for parents, teachers, police and the community at large. Remember the days when a Copper would catch a child doing the wrong thing, take the offender by the ear give them a kick up the backside and take them home so dad could do the belting.
Now boy of ten can smash a window enter a house, assult the elderly woman inside, be court in the act on leaving the house.
The police can't hold him till a representitive from Child wellfear attends the scean.
I know a teacher 3rd grade (8 to 9 y/0) was told to "F#$K up and Die" by one of her students after she saw the child through a cricet ball at her can. When she told the child to go to the office she was told "you can't make me do anything it's after 3 so F#$K OFF!"
Bring back the old days and force some respect
One commentator sighted the fact that more crime being commited by younger and younger children everyday. He said it has a lot to do with Respect. Respect for parents, teachers, police and the community at large. Remember the days when a Copper would catch a child doing the wrong thing, take the offender by the ear give them a kick up the backside and take them home so dad could do the belting.
Now boy of ten can smash a window enter a house, assult the elderly woman inside, be court in the act on leaving the house.
The police can't hold him till a representitive from Child wellfear attends the scean.
I know a teacher 3rd grade (8 to 9 y/0) was told to "F#$K up and Die" by one of her students after she saw the child through a cricet ball at her can. When she told the child to go to the office she was told "you can't make me do anything it's after 3 so F#$K OFF!"
Bring back the old days and force some respect
Re: Starting young
Respect? Fear and resentment is just as likely. This appears to be a deeper problem, and not smething a kick in the ass could solve. I remember kids who had the crap kicked out of them by the fathers regularly and what did it do--make them model students? nah, they became the worst bullies preying on the smaller and younger kids. One I know is (or was) in jail for killing someone in a bar fight decades ago.
i'm not saying the system we have now is great--it clearly isn't. But the halcyone "good old days" weren't all that great either.
i'm not saying the system we have now is great--it clearly isn't. But the halcyone "good old days" weren't all that great either.
Re: Starting young
Storm in a tea cup?
An eight-year-old girl alleged to have been sexually assaulted by two 10-year-olds has told the Old Bailey that the boys did not rape her.
She said she had lied to her mother about what had happened because she had been "naughty" and was worried she would not get any sweets.
The girl was allegedly attacked in a field in west London in October 2009.
The boys, now aged 10 and 11, each deny two charges of rape and two charges of attempted rape of a child under 13.
In cross-examination by defence counsel, the girl admitted that she had voluntarily been playing with the boys and had pulled her own underwear down while the boys exposed themselves to her.
Linda Strudwick, defending, asked the girl whether she had told her mother it was one of the boys that did it.
She said: "You didn't want your mum to think you had been naughty?"
The girl, giving evidence from behind a screen, replied: "Yeah."
The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, asked what the girl had been worried about and she replied: "No sweets if it [sic] found out I had been naughty."
The judge asked her if she had been naughty when she was with the boys and the girl replied: "Just a tiny bit."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 680370.stm
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Starting young
Christ.
I wondered at the time whether the ten year olds would be old enough for an erection. But as kids seem to develop a lot quicker than they did in my day, I didn't give it a second thought.
I hope her mum does a bit more than withhold sweeties from her child.
I wondered at the time whether the ten year olds would be old enough for an erection. But as kids seem to develop a lot quicker than they did in my day, I didn't give it a second thought.
I hope her mum does a bit more than withhold sweeties from her child.
Bah!
Re: Starting young
That girl should be permanently and irreversably sterilized upon reaching puberty.
Treat Gaza like Carthage.
Re: Starting young
seems to be your answer to everything
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: Starting young
I consider the vast majority of the human race a waste of oxygen. This one certainly falls into that category.
Treat Gaza like Carthage.