Three girls detained for sexual assault ‘happy slapping’ of teenage boy

THREE girls who took part in a brutal “happy slapping” attack in which a teenage boy was sexually assaulted were yesterday ordered to be detained.

A 17-year-old said to be the ringleader in the boy’s ordeal received four years’ detention, a 16-year-old got three years’ detention and another 17-year-old was made subject to a two-year detention and training order.

The girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted at Inner London Crown Court on August 9 of false imprisonment and “causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent”.

One of the girls pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and the other two were found guilty on the same count.

The court heard that the victim, who was 17 at the time of the attack in a flat in Woolwich, south-east London, in March last year, was forced to strip naked and masturbate, had ketchup and kitchen oil smeared on him and was forced to get into a cold bath to wash it off.

Judge Colin Smith said: “After several hours of this affair, despite efforts to prevent him doing so, he was able to recover enough of his clothing, with the help of the occupier of the flat, who was there during this, but took no part, finally to make good his escape”.

He ran to his ex-girlfriend’s mother’s house, where he was seen by her to be in a very bad state, the judge said.

“When he was seen later by a doctor he was found to have extensive bruising all over his body.”

The judge added: “It must be said that a particularly unpleasant and increasingly common feature of such cases is that several parts of the victim’s ordeal — including the rather harrowing episode where the victim can be seen begging for mercy in the bath — was video recorded on at least one mobile phone by the group, as some kind of record of these crimes which were committed.

“One can tell, listening to that video, that the ordeal was being played out to a background of extremely loud screaming and laughing by the group.”

The judge said that the victim’s impact statement indicated he was a vulnerable young man, and it was clear he was suffering serious psychological effects.

As a result of one of the mobile videos being passed around, members of his family came to see what had happened to him, in part, the judge said.

“This kind of behaviour went far beyond even serious bullying, and amounted to the infliction of pain and humiliation on the victim, which is intolerable behaviour.”

An officer in the case, Detective Sergeant Vinnie Lindstrom said: “We are satisfied that justice has clearly been done, and it sends out a clear message to those who participate in so-called happy slapping and unlawful acts of predetermined violence.

“Today’s outcome will go a long way in helping the victim rebuild his life.”